by Amy Richie
“What does that mean?” I asked David.
“She sent the other guard away so Ossian could kill us without interference. Ossian is Vladimir’s guard — he doesn’t answer to Kiera.”
David was protected by Kiera’s decree that the guards protect the Letrell’s and all they created. Ossian was Neleh’s loophole. The only power she truly had.
“That’s not true,” she snapped in my direction.
“It is true. You’re powerless without them,” I spoke bolder than I felt.
“Would you like me to demonstrate my power?” Her eyes grew large.
What happened next was almost too fast for my eyes to see, but I caught the gist of it. Neleh lunged forward and thrust her small knife into my stomach, twisting to make the wound bleed more. David came forward to stop her but he was stopped by the blade on Ossian’s sword.
“No!” I watched in horror as Ossian held David’s body off the ground with his sword. His evil smile matched Neleh’s.
Acting on impulse, I dove my body forward into Ossian’s legs. He was off balanced for a fraction of a second too long. I pulled the sword free from David and in the same motion, put it into Ossian.
His hand came hard against my jaw, knocking it out of place. I skidded across the room and slammed into the wall. I looked up and he was coming at me again.
“Stop!” The voice was loud and unfamiliar, but everything in the room became very still. A woman I didn’t recognize stood in the doorway.
David was on the floor still with an alarming puddle of blood still growing around him. Neleh had gone very quiet and her face had lost all haughtiness. The other three guards were all standing behind the strange woman. Their bulk blocked the door so I couldn’t tell if anyone else was there.
“What are you doing here?” Neleh demanded. I had never heard her voice sound so humble.
“I should ask you the same question.”
“What I do here is of no concern of yours.”
I was having such a hard time following this strange conversation. Who was this strange woman? Was David dead?
“David is not dead.” The beautiful stranger said directly looking at me. “And I am Kiera,” My breath stuck in my throat. Kiera. What was she doing here? “I found it strange when the guards showed up at Blakesly House.” Her eyes swung back to accuse Neleh. “What are you doing here, Neleh?”
“This is not your business.”
“David belongs to us.”
“Eva does not.”
“I believe you are mistaken Neleh,” came an all too familiar voice from behind Kiera. My heart rate exploded. The small crowd in front of the door parted so someone could get through. “I have claimed this woman as mine.”
“Nickolas!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Time seemed to stop when he finally looked at me. The sounds of my ragged breathing echoed in my ears. I had wanted him to come, even expected him; but seeing him now confused my mind.
It had only been a week since I last saw him but the changes in him were drastic. He was still beautiful but the features were hard, defined. His mouth remained pulled tight — almost in a snarl. He held himself so stiff that I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing.
His eyes were the most changed though. My mouth fell open. The liquid brown warmth that I remembered had turned to a dull, dead color. His eyes, which were always so full of laughter, only showed anger now. And that anger went deep down.
“Nickolas?” The sound of his low growl reached my ears after everyone else had flinched back. “You came?”
Neleh’s laughter erupted from her lips. “Isn’t this nice?” she cooed. Nickolas’ growl was louder this time, more threatening. It reminded me too much of the wolf from my dreams. “Dominick. It has been a long time since you graced me with your presence.” her voice sing-songed through the sir but her words stuck in my thoughts.
Dominick Letrell. Kiera was here. It only made sense that she would travel with all the Letrell’s. I would finally come face to face with the man who had dominated my every thought. But what a way to meet him. Blood still seeped from the wound in my stomach and my jaw still ached from Ossian’s back hand. David was likely dying across the room and Neleh wanted me dead. My circumstances were less than ideal.
I certainly wouldn’t be able to kill him, but I welcomed the idea that I would finally meet him. I hoped that he would be the one to kill me; I couldn’t stop the thought from forming. It surprised me when I felt a touch on my arm. I was relieved that it was only David. I hadn’t even seen him move.
“Dominick is here,” I whispered, excitement making me sound crazy.
“I know,” he whispered back.
Neleh’s laughter again echoed throughout the room. “This is so much fun,” she squealed.
“Will she be alright?” Nickolas demanded from David.
David pulled up my shirt front to reveal the damage caused by Neleh’s knife. “It’s not healing very quickly. She’s losing a lot of blood.”
“Fix her.” Nickolas looked menacing, like he would rip David in half.
“I need my laser.” David himself was broken. He clutched his middle and blood was everywhere.
“I’ll get it,” I volunteered.
“You stay here.” David got painfully to his feet.
“David has always babied her,” Neleh accused, “made her soft. Dominick, I don’t believe she would have ever fallen for you if David had not filled her head with silly thoughts about love.” She smiled cruelly. “Eva was such a good girl, always did as she was told.”
“I listened to you torture her.” Why was Nickolas answering for Dominick Letrell? “It made it easier for me to kill all those people.”
Kill people? Did Nickolas just say he had killed people? No, he would never hurt anyone.
“Oh, Dominick, you cannot possibly be trying to blame me for your murdering ways.”
Why was Neleh calling Nickolas Dominick?
It was sickening how fast it all clicked in my head. Most of the eyes in the room turned to me, eager to see my reaction as I realized the truth. A truth that had always been there, but I refused to acknowledge.
Nickolas was Dominick Letrell.
My breath came out in a gasp as I recalled every conversation; all the clues that had been there the whole time.
“We didn’t actually grow up together. Elizabeth and I did. But the others, we joined and formed a family later.”
“I thought you and your brothers refused to lay claim on any human. Called it…barbaric. Did you not?”
“Dominick, who are your friends?”
“It’s too late for that.”
“The past will not be changed. I know my course and…” he hesitated, “I will follow it through.”
I raised my eyes up and met the ones I sought. Was Nickolas there still? No. it had been a lie, all lies. My breathing became faster. I knew I was hyperventilating but I couldn’t stop it.
What had he become? This was all my fault. By the river, I had told him what he would become, what he had to become so I could exist. Gagging noises came from deep in my chest. I had turned Nickolas into a monster.
“It’s strange seeing her like this,” I heard from somewhere far away.
“What is that?”
“Her shield. I figured it was probably purely defensive.”
“How is she able to do that?”
“It’s the guard’s blood in her.”
“Which guard?”
“Ossian. We weren’t sure if the others…if the loyalties went with…”
Then a new voice came through my haze. “I knew this would work,” Neleh purred.
And then I knew too. All those years ago she saw how much he loved me. She saw everything in my head and so she did all she could to turn me against him. To be able to deny him what he truly wanted. The reason he was who he was. The love we had shared.
I tasted blood on my lip before I let it go from between my teeth. Of course Neleh k
new I was reading love stories. Of course Neleh knew that David was going to see Damien Letrell. And of course she knew David would betray us.
A thousand realizations hit me all at once. Nickolas, my Nickolas, was never real. Just a made up name. A low moan escaped my lips and I closed my eyes tight on my tears. That didn’t stop them though. They still seeped out and ran down my cheeks.
“Neleh won,” I sobbed openly.
When I opened my eyes, hers were the first I saw. She just watched me with a small smirk on her face. Her smile went strangely in and out of focus. I was getting weak. My shield made me weak; the gash in my stomach didn’t help.
David came sharply into focus, making me blink. “Eva, no one is going to hurt you.”
“Not now.” No one could possibly hurt me more than I already was. I should have just let Sols and Max kill me.
“Drop your shield. Pull it back.”
“I can’t.”
“You can. Just focus.”
I shook my head back and forth uncomprehendingly. “I can’t.”
“Eva,” another voice boomed. It was familiar, yet a complete stranger’s. “Pull yourself together. David needs to put you back together.”
“Allow me?” At Dominick’s curt nod, Kiera glided through my pathetic shield. She knelt down to where I was still lying. “Child, no one will hurt you,” she said gently.
I was mesmerized by her soft, musical voice. I didn’t feel my shield drop but I knew it must have because David was also close beside me. “We’ll have you fixed up in no time,” he whispered.
“Your little green laser can’t fix everything David,” I croaked out. I would have been humiliated if I had been in my right mind and knew how many people were staring at me in disbelief.
“Eva, shh.”
“I can’t.” I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see anything else.
“Everything will be ok.”
“No it won’t. Can’t you see? Everything was just a set up.”
“Eva.” He tried to lift the front of my shirt so he could heal my wound for me but I fought him off. “Don’t you want me to…?”
“No,” I slapped his hands away, “I just want you to let me die.”
“You’re being unreasonable.”
I knew that but I was way beyond reason. “Just leave me.”
“And to think, all my hard work has come to this.” My eyes popped open at the sound of Neleh’s voice.
“You’re disappointed?” I challenged. “Why? All your plans have worked out just as you wanted them too.”
“My plan was for you to kill Dominick. He still breaths. And you are a bloody mess at my feet.”
I rose to my feet painfully, pushing David’s hands away. “You should have just let me die in that dumpster.”
“We did not find you in a dumpster, you idiot girl.”
“Then…”
“Your mother was poor. We simply relieved her of one more burden.”
“You kidnapped her from her mother?” Kiera was outraged. I couldn’t see how it made much of a difference how I arrived at Lexon.
“What does it matter to you?” Neleh’s smile suddenly widened. “Ah yes, I almost forgot. You were a mother…once.” Her smile remained fixed.
“We will not speak of such things. Remember your place, Neleh.”
In my peripheral vision I saw Henri fidgeting, itching to fight. On their own accord, my eyes swung to Dominick. He stood tense, equally ready for a fight. And I stood in front of Neleh, shaking like a leaf and bleeding on my shoes. Dominick was right; I needed to pull myself together. I took a deep breath through my nose and let it out slowly.
“Are you going to run to Dominick now Eva?” Neleh’s voice whispered in my head. “Let him hold you and wipe away your tears.”
“Why did you drag me into your fight with the Letrell’s?” I didn’t move my lips.
“Sometimes Eva,” I turned to glare at her even though she wasn’t speaking out loud, “matters of the heart can wound the deepest.”
“You are a horrible creature.”
“Name calling will get you nowhere.” Her lips turned up into a crazy grin.
“You pretend to help humanity, to be a superhero. But the truth is, you are as evil as Dominick.”
“Perhaps you are right.” She shrugged lightly.
I didn’t see anything else then, only her half smile and cocky confidence. She thought that no one would hurt her. I didn’t take the time to think things through clearly. I merely acted on impulse.
I lunged at Neleh with the closest weapon I could find — my small knife. Everyone seemed to move all at once then. Ossian was on top of me in an instant, pinning me to the ground with his strong hands. I felt my fragile human bones cracking under the pressure.
Then he was flying through the air and Dominick was hovering over top of me with his teeth bared. Almost instantaneously several more Letrell brothers were over me in similar positions.
Over their ferocious growling and the haze of my own pain, I couldn’t hear anything else that was going on, but I did hear Neleh’s voice in my head just before everything turned black.
“We shall meet again, Eva,” she promised.
Chapter Twenty–Nine
I opened my eyes and smiled into the sunlight. Nickolas was sitting on a chair beside my bed. I reached my hand out to him, still grinning. I wondered why his smile was so hesitant.
He brought my fingers to his lips and kissed them gently. “I missed your face,” he whispered hoarsely.
I giggled softly. “Geez, how long have I been sleeping?”
“You’re just,” he sucked in a ragged breath, “just as I remember.” He pushed the hair off my forehead with a gentle caress.
“You look so tired,” I whispered. I let my fingertips glide softly over the purple rings under his eyes. His eyes closed and he shivered slightly.
The door opened behind him. We both turned our heads to see David coming into the room. His appearance shattered my beautiful delusion; I snatched my hand away from Dominick.
“Eva, you’re awake.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t return David’s smile. I was too busy trying to tear my eyes from Dominick.
“How do you feel?”
I was sure he meant physically. I shrugged a little. “Fine.”
“I was beginning to wonder of you would ever get up.”
I jerked my head up. “How long have I been sleeping?”
“Um…” He rubbed his hand along the back of his neck.
“Seventy-eight hours, twenty-six minutes, and thirteen seconds. But that is just since we got here.” Dominick answered for David.
“Where’s here?” I still addressed David.
“We’re at Blakesly House.”
“Kiera’s home?”
“It’s the house of the Letrell’s.”
“You…brought me…here?” I wanted to jump up and demand that we go somewhere else but I wasn’t sure what our options were or how strong I was. I didn’t want Dominick to see me weak. I tried my best not to look at him. An all too familiar hatred was surfacing.
“You’re safe here.”
My eyes darted on their own accord to where Dominick still sat. His eyes were narrowed but he didn’t say anything. “How can you be sure?”
His eyes also darted to the silent Dominick. “You are,” was all he said.
“You’re mine, Eva,” Dominick finally broke his silence, “no one would dare to hurt you.”
“I’m not yours. I don’t belong to anyone.” My hands clenched. David came to stand closer to the bed. “Where’s Neleh?”
“She’s gone.”
Obviously. “Where…did she go?”
“You can’t think to rejoin her?” Dominick asked.
I didn’t acknowledge him. “Where did she go?”
“I don’t know,” David answered, “she disappeared with the guard. She’ll probably stay out of sight for a while.”
“Why?” Surely s
he would come back for me. I heard Dominick’s low growl but pretended not to.
“She is afraid that Kiera will take the guard from her. She is used to having that authority.”
“She wouldn’t.” It was hard to imagine Neleh being afraid of anything.
David only shrugged. “You feel like getting up?”
I hesitated. What if I was too weak? “Ok.”
David pulled my blanket off of me which got a warning growl from Dominick — who refused to leave. “Do you want to help her then?” he asked Dominick.
“I don’t need help.” I slowly moved my legs over the side of the bed and brought myself to a sitting position.
“Don’t go to fast Eva,” David warned, “you broke nearly every bone in your body. I mended them as best I could, but you are only human.”
“My bones were broken?” Why couldn’t I remember that?
“Ossian…”
I closed my eyes and groaned. I had tried to attack Neleh. She would never forgive me. “What was I thinking?”
“You weren’t.” He put his hands under my arms and pulled me to a standing position. Even though I staggered slightly, I managed to stay on my feet.
I held onto his hand as I made an experimental walk around the room. It irritated me that Dominick hovered at my side. Didn’t he have anything better to do? Someone to torture or a city to burn?
“I have no prior engagements,” he replied to my thoughts without a hint of amusement on his hardened features.
I glared at him. I hated when he listened to my private thoughts. So intent was I in glaring that I tripped over nothing and almost went down. Dominick had a hold of my waist instantly.
His touch was too hot on my already burning skin. I twisted out of his grip, forcing David to catch me when I lost my balance again. David fought back a grin. “Just steady yourself and we’ll go again,” he chuckled.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’d be fine if he would go away.” I stood back up on shaking legs, turning so I could scowl at Dominick. “Go away.”
“I don’t have anywhere to be,” he shrugged one shoulder.
“So go and dig a big hole, then bury yourself in it. Saves us all a whole lot of hassle.”
