When sunlight broke through the window, she was too drained to move and too numb to feel anything. Her puffy eyes hurt looking at the light beyond the glass panes. So, she closed them, letting sleep claim her at last.
At noon, Helena crawled out of bed, plagued with a foul mood. She went into the kitchen to get some much-needed caffeine. Once the kettle voiced a satisfied whistle, she prepared her drink and frowned. Byron’s family was out of the house. She hadn’t checked the living room, but she guessed Alexander was commandeering the space as his office. Since he had settled in, more and more paperwork showed up on the available surfaces.
He entered the kitchen with his hands in his pockets.
“Where’s everyone?” she asked.
“At work.”
Helena raised a brow. “Byron works?”
“Of course he does. He took a sick leave from the garage to get the hunter matter sorted out. Seems like his holiday days are up.” Alexander checked the caller ID and offered her the phone. “It’s your mother.”
The mug slid out of her hand, smashing at her feet and spilling coffee on Sinead’s immaculate linoleum.
“Do you want to take the call later?” Alexander asked, concerned.
“No. Now is fine. The mug got too hot,” she stumbled over her words and grabbed the phone from him. She ran out into the sunny garden, making sure he wasn’t there when she accepted the call.
“Laura?” Helena whispered into the receiver.
“I guess someone’s listening. I get it,” Laura replied and lowered her voice. “Come to Oaks Farm Barn in Croydon, Coombe Park. You’ve got two hours.” She hung up.
Her shoulders slumped. She was once more reminded that this was not a simple nightmare but reality. She called a taxi, giving the company Byron’s address. With rigid movements, she returned to the house and headed upstairs when Alexander pulled on her wrist.
“What was that about?” he asked, unamused. His perceptive eyes assessed her, seeking flaws in her poker face.
“Mum called. She couldn’t talk much.”
“You’re lying, Helena,” Alexander grumbled. He jerked her arm, forcing her down a step, and backed her against the wall. “Who called you?”
“My mother.”
He slammed his fist next to her head. “Since you are no longer bound to Lucious, the next one will be aimed at your head. Talk!”
She glared at him. “I never pegged you for someone who would hit a woman.”
His grimaced, staggering back a step. “I guess you know me better than I thought. Nevertheless, answer my question. No lying this time. I can tell by your heartbeat.”
Helena looked at the ground. She couldn’t tell him the truth or he would stop her. She couldn’t lie or he would know she tried to deceive him. With a frustrated groan, she said, “Laura.”
“The hunter?”
“Yes.”
“And why would she be calling from your mother’s—” He slapped his forehead and grasped her upper arm. “You’re not going anywhere. The hunters are dangerous.”
“And what would you do in my place? Let them die? My mum is pregnant for God’s sake!”
He cursed and ran his hand through his platinum hair. “Lucious will kill me. He will kill anything that moves if he loses you after Anna.”
She locked her jaw, trying to stop her lip from quivering. Her heart hurt like it was being pulled apart. Just the mention of his name brought tears to her eyes. “Please do this for me. I have no choice.”
“Can you wait until I contact someone? I could ask Byron for help.”
“No! If I don’t go there alone, she’ll kill them.”
He shook his head. “How well do you know that girl? Is she capable of this?”
Helena looked him dead in the eye. The Laura she spent her holidays with, playing card games on the porch or trying out new makeup. That same Laura she attended school with who cheated off her in Maths. Deep down, she knew their friendship was over. The way she talked, it was as if her best friend had undergone a complete personality change. Yet, Helena didn’t hate her. The loss of her parents left her alone and in the hands of the hunters.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I will try to reason with her, but…”
He cursed again, this time in Russian. “I lost my parents too, long ago. I know what it feels like, them not being there. The pain never goes away. It stays in our hearts. Although I know I should tie you up and keep an eye on you, I cannot because I would do the exact same thing as you.”
A honk outside alerted them to the arrival of the taxi.
“My ride is here,” she said with a lopsided smile.
Alexander offered his hand in a form of a handshake. “Tell me the address. I’ll get there the second sun sets. If you can, find a way to stall.”
She recited the address and gave him a firm handshake. “Thank you, Alexander. You aren’t as bad as I thought you were.”
“And you are not as annoying as I believed you to be. If we see each other again, I will gladly buy you a drink.”
She laughed. “Scotch?”
“Anything you like.” He engulfed her in a hug. “Goodbye, Helena. May God be on your side.”
After giving him an awkward squeeze back, they separated, and he handed her a hundred pounds.
She lifted a brow in an unspoken question.
“For the taxi fare, unless you planned to con the driver or pay with your body,” Alexander explained.
“Oh, I forgot. Thanks.” She gave him a peck on the cheek and climbed into the waiting car outside.
A bad feeling rested heavy in her gut as she told the driver the address, and he pulled away.
The sun scorched London from above, making an already stuffy air impossible to use. Today had to be the brightest and sunniest day in all of English history, or so she liked to muse. She opened the window, letting the warm air in the car mix with the soothing breeze.
At the back of her mind, Michael kept screaming for her to turn back, and she blocked him out again. She didn’t have the will to listen to him. Not after seeing Lilia’s memories. He would always side with the fate because, to him, Helena was nothing more than a vessel.
Her eye twitched when Lilia’s frantic words replaced Michael’s. “You will die! Can you not fathom that? If you keep on this path, your death is imminent. Turn back, I beg of you!”
“Stop acting like you care,” she thought back.
“The sacrifice of two people compared to the fate of many, there is no comparison!”
“Three. There are three people waiting for me, Lilia,” Helena replied, getting annoyed. “And while I control this body, I won’t let you do as you like. This is my life, my choice. Whether I die tonight or a month from now, I don’t care. I want them to be safe.”
She managed to block out the fate’s screams in her head for the rest of the uneventful journey. Once she paid the driver, and he drove off, she stood on a small paved path leading to what seemed to be a large private property.
Edging closer, she studied her surroundings, half-expecting Laura to jump out of the bushes with a gun and empty the clip into her chest. When none of that happened, she followed the single road. She passed two houses, one on either side of her. Laura would have specified a building if the meeting place was there, so she kept going. If her friend thought as a hunter, she would want an open space; somewhere the vampires couldn’t help her.
Five more minutes of walking led her to an open field of a park. She stopped and covered her eyes with her hand to find a faint shimmer of metal in the distance. Two people stood at the foot of a large oak. The rest of the view was too obscured by the tall grass for her tired eyes to make out.
She wiped her perspiring palms on her jeans and climbed over the wooden fence. Her eyes remained focused on the target as she put one foot in front of the other. Her instincts told her to run. Lilia at the back of her mind had been screaming relentlessly, but Helena pressed on.
Once her parents cam
e into view, bound to the tree trunk and gagged, she picked up speed and ran to them.
A strange man with a tarantula tattoo on his neck, who she guessed was Shane, pointed his gun at her. The sun reflected off its surface, blinding her for a second.
“Stay in the sun, Helena,” he warned.
She covered her eyes again as she panted, her chest rising and falling in rapid succession. “I’m here, so let them go!”
“Not yet,” he shouted back and shared a couple of words with Laura that Helena couldn’t hear.
While they talked, she cast her gaze to Richard and her mother. Both had bruises on their faces, but nothing that would indicate permanent damage.
“You must go back!” Lilia begged in her head.
As if to back the fate’s urgent request, Michael appeared next to Helena. Shane didn’t react, and Helena guessed her guardian didn’t want to be seen by the hunters.
The angel scowled at her. “It is dangerous for you to be here. Laura will not listen to you, her uncle made certain of that. Helena, you must leave here while you can…”
She looked on ahead. “I can’t.”
Laura came towards her with a long blade gripped in her right hand. “It’s been a while since we last saw one another, Thorn.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“But you have lived up to the name—a thorn in people’s side. It’s perfect.”
Helena’s nails dug into her palms. “Laura, please let them go. My mum’s pregnant. Any stress could affect the pregnancy.”
“Oh! That explains the weight gain. I thought she was getting a bit fat around the middle,” She burst out laughing at her own joke.
“Run, Helena!” Lilia screamed in Helena’s mind. “Please, leave this place.”
Another headache assaulted her, and Helena fought for control while Laura drew near.
“You know, when I got your voicemail, I thought my heart stopped beating,” Laura said, recalling the past. “Seeing the bodies of my parents with their necks twisted and bones shattered hurt like crazy. But, I knew that it couldn’t be a human who did it. It had to be one of your vampire friends.” She stopped a few feet away from Helena. “So, which one do I kill next?”
“Look, you don’t have to do—”
Laura pointed the blade at Helena’s chest, stopping her mid-sentence. “I’ve asked you a question. Which of those monsters did it?”
“You can still get away. Turn back and run!” Lilia yelled.
“I can’t!” Helena snapped.
Laura’s dead eyes narrowed. “I thought you were my friend once, Helena. I protected you from the hunters ever since I found that grimoire. They would have killed you or tortured you until you told them everything you knew. But, I see the error of my ways. As my uncle said, you are part of the problem, part of the disease that spreads through this world and claims the lives of innocents.” Laura’s eyes watered, and she blinked away the tears.
With her friend suffering so much, Helena wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around her and apologise, so they could overcome this hurdle. “I’m so sorry about your parents. Let’s just end this madness and go our separate ways.”
Laura’s face hardened when her eyes flicked back to Helena. “You’re right. I should end this, shouldn’t I?”
“Helena!” Michael shouted.
Laura drove the blade home. A sharp pain cut through Helena’s chest and travelled to every nerve ending in her body. Tears escaped her and blood scaled her throat, forcing her to cough.
Her friend grasped Helena’s shoulder and pushed the blade in further. The sharp tip emerged out on the other side. “Because you kept your word, I’ll keep mine. I’ll let your parents watch you die.” Swiftly, she yanked the blade out and retreated to her uncle.
Helena coughed again. More blood splattered the t-shirt she had borrowed from Sinead. She had missed the chance to say her goodbye to the Brentwoods, to Lucious, to her parents. Her knees gave way and the world around her seemed to disappear, a little at a time, with new black spots appearing and inking a piece of the imagery. And, when her heart pumped the last beat, her eyes glazed over, and she smiled.
I’m glad they’re safe…
23
Letting Go
“We can rest at Master Vincent’s holiday home a short drive from here,” Hans suggested after they had influenced as many humans as they could in West Norwood to believe there was a hallucinogen mixed in with the water supply.
Lucious sighed. “I miss being able to walk in the sun…”
“You and me both,” Hans said with a laugh. “At least, you had your chance in the recent weeks. The last time I felt sunlight on my skin was in the seventeenth century.”
“Ah, a while then?”
“Yes.”
They took Hans’ car into central London where he parked it outside The Boltons housing estate. Too tired to take in the three-storey snow-white manor, Lucious dragged his feet to the doorway, leaving Hans to fumble in his pockets for the keys.
“I cannot wait to get some rest,” Lucious admitted.
“I have informed the hounds that we shall be using this as a temporary Council building.” He paused and added, “Kallias is here, too.”
“Since we cannot trust him yet, it is best we keep our distance.”
“Agreed.” Hans unlocked the door.
Inside, the white and gold interior gave Lucious a headache. Vincent went all out in decorating this place. Polished marble flooring reflected the crystal chandeliers lined with gold. Paintings from what Lucious guessed to be the Renaissance era hung on the walls. Vases from unknown Dynasties were placed on black marble column stands along the long hallway. He struggled to keep the groan in at the excess of expense as he strode ahead. At the end of the path, he climbed the iron wrought staircase.
He disregarded the passing vampire who bowed his head on his approach and ducked into the first room. Behind the closed door, Lucious let out a sigh of relief. The weight of being a Councilman hung heavy on his shoulders. So much that he thought the gravity of it would crush him.
The expectations from my people… He snorted. Already, he referred to them as his people. Perhaps Anna and Eliza were correct. He wanted to belong. One thing he was certain of, as long as Helena was by his side, he would remain level-headed.
Undoing the buttons of his shirt, he sat on the bed. Her scent and the memory of her desperate need to hide her moans from him brought a smile to his face. He wanted to hold her in his arms again. When he glanced at the clock, he knew he couldn’t. It was almost 5 a.m., and she would be blissfully asleep in her bed. As much as he wanted to disturb her, he couldn’t get to the other side of London in time. So, he lay down and let sleep wash away his desire.
“Lucious, you’ve got a call from Alexander,” Hans’ voice brought him out of dreamless slumber.
He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and rubbed his face into a more awakened state. “What is it?”
“I want you to go over to the nearest drinks cabinet and grab a drink first,” Alexander said, nerves seeping into his voice.
Lucious stiffened. Unless something serious had happened, his friend wouldn’t suggest alcohol as a conversation starter. “Alexander…”
The line was quiet for what seemed like an eternity. Lucious checked the phone to see if the call was still connected. Once confirmed, he said, “Did you call me to get me drunk?”
Alexander let out a nervous laugh. “Not exactly. This is difficult for me because I know you will rip my head off and may not speak to me again.”
“What happened?” Lucious’ humour died instantly, and he stood.
Hans eyed him with worry, also listening in to the conversation as he waited for his phone.
“Helena went to see the hunters…”
“And you let her out of the bloody house?” Lucious shouted.
“There is more to it than that. They had her parents. She couldn’t stay or they would die.”
&nb
sp; Lucious’ eyes flared. “Give me the address.”
Hans scowled. “You cannot go out there. We lost our cars with UV protection in the attack on the main building.”
“Then I shall drain every person here until I have enough power to walk out that door.”
“I cannot let you do that.”
“If I can’t get to her in time…” He pressed the phone closer to his ear. “The address, Alexander, what is it?”
“Croydon, Coombe Park…”
Lucious hung up and threw the phone on the bed. “I’m leaving.”
“To do what, go unconscious in the middle of London while there are hunters out there, waiting to eliminate the last of us? I won’t let you,” Hans protested.
“This isn’t up to you.”
Hans grabbed Lucious by the throat and backed him up against the wall. “You may have a lot of power in you, Lucious, but I am older.” His energy crept out of his shields like a massive weight, pressing on Lucious till he could barely move a muscle. “Abandon this idea. We will fetch her when we can leave here.”
“It may be too late!” Lucious snapped.
“Then we will ask Ghoul Master to send someone, but you are not leaving this room.”
Lucious opened his shields, letting his energy loose. As he concentrated on his right hand, it erupted with fire, startling the vampire.
“Eliza’s power—”
“Yes,” Lucious choked out and burned Hans’ wrist.
Hans groaned in pain and two vampires along with Karl burst into the room.
The Royal’s eyes focused on Lucious’ hand. “Aren’t you full of surprises, young Lucious.”
“Let me go, Karl!”
“I must agree with the other Councilman. You can’t endanger yourself needlessly.” Karl motioned to the hounds. “Restrain him.”
Lucious glared at them. “Do not touch me!”
They bowed their heads and grabbed his arms. “We are sorry, Master Lucious, but majority vote rules the Council.”
Crumbling Control (Helena Hawthorn Series Book 3) Page 31
