Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence

by Am Hudson

  I pressed my hand to my chest. “God, I miss him so much.”

  “You’ll see him again,” Em said, touching my arm again. “We just have a battle to win first.”

  “Well, we won’t win much without a plan,” Lord Eden said, moving in beside me.

  Emily smiled and then flung herself into his arms. I wanted to watch—to analyse the way she hugged him—but the other guys came over and hugs were exchanged, followed by repeated hugs, everyone laughing and way too jolly for the reason we were meeting. But I felt jolly, too. So we might have had a battle to plan, and death might be imminent, but at least we were all reunited.

  The mood darkened as another car came up the drive, though, and every one of us, with our keen senses, knew who it was. I saw Em’s skin change on her arm—little bumps pushing the hairs to stand—but Lord Eden and I smiled warmly as the car pulled in beside Emily’s.

  I felt an odd kind of peace as I thought about the fact that, while Lord Eden greeted his son, I would be greeting my real father, and a part of that peace came from knowing that I didn’t carry this secret alone.

  As I grinned knowingly back at David, Jason’s eyes suddenly went a little wider, moving from David to me, then on to Drake as he climbed out of his car.

  I didn’t need confirmation. Jason had clearly just entered our circle of secrets.

  David shook his head once at his brother—a warning—and Jase nodded, his wide eyes landing on his feet, the shock clearly still trickling through his limbs.

  “Come on,” David said. “We’ll go inside. Ara can greet Drake on her own.” He made it sound spiteful and bitter, but I knew he just wanted to give me a moment of privacy. Except, he forgot: I was better at keeping up appearances than him.

  “Father.” Drake bowed, one hand tucking his shirt closer to his chest. He stood tall then and smiled down at me. “Amara.”

  “Drake.” I bowed my head in greeting, but as my eyes studied his face, marking the similarities between us, they shrunk with a smile that I knew warmed my entire face. And Drake’s warmed in response.

  He looked at Lord Eden then. “Safia is watching,” he said quietly.

  Lord Eden glanced over his shoulder at the house. “It is no matter. She can hear this. We are simply planning an attack on the manor. It has nothing to do with her or her desires.”

  Drake moved his head in a singular nod.

  “Come then.” Lord Eden broke away from the circle of conversation. “We’ve much to discuss.”

  I held back and walked beside Drake, rolling my eyes at my grandfather’s melodramatic tone of grave warning.

  Drake laughed gently.

  ***

  The dining table became a battle planning zone, with a map of Loslilian—courtesy of Lord Eden—several green army men—courtesy of the local dollar store—and eight eager battle strategists moving pieces around.

  When this began a few hours ago, my eyes had been sharp and my ears keen, but as time wore on and no one agreed wholeheartedly, I started seeing the need for an overlord—a decision maker. I was about to pull rank when I saw an emerging pattern of theories.

  “Okay, so we enter through the secret passageway in my bedchambers, connected to the tunnel from the village,” I said, converging all the arguments. “But how do we get to the village? The second we cross the bridge onto the island, they’ll have us. We—”

  “We have one thing on our side that they don’t,” Drake said with an impish grin.

  Everyone looked at him, waiting eagerly.

  “How many times have I ever been caught sneaking into Loslilian?” He held his arms out wide. “None.” He clamped his hands together. “Because I have a weapon.”

  “What weapon?” Quaid said impatiently.

  “Magic.” He separated his hands again and slight blue glow tinted his chin and the tip of his nose. Then, he vanished.

  “The cloaking spell,” I chirped, my eyes wide. “The same one you used to rescue me.”

  “The very one,” he said, appearing again, the light dying with his spell. “I can guide a small team into the manor to attack from the inside. Once we’ve turned their attention to the building, my Warriors can slip in over the cliff walls and attack from the outside.”

  “Once we cut off the head of the dragon, the body will fall,” Lord Eden said. “Our objective is quite simply to kill Walter, and take out the rest of the Upper House.”

  “Right. And while we take care of that, Jason and Ara need to get to the forest,” David said.

  “Is it really that important?” Em asked. “I mean, if we’re going to win the manor back, can’t they stay here and Ara can talk to Lilith later?”

  “And what if we don’t win, Em?” Mike said, looking away from her quickly when their eyes met. “This could be her only chance.”

  “I’m not taking any unnecessary risks, Emily,” I said. “If we don’t win this battle, and I don’t speak with Lilith—” I had to stop and remind myself that Emily knew nothing about the child being soulless, nor did Quaid. And it had to stay that way. At least while we were in a room where Safia could hear.

  “What?” Emily said, her eyes shrinking on the inner corners. “Why is it so important?”

  “It’s no secret that I carry the child Anandene,” I lied. “And it’s no secret that Drake intends to resurrect his sister once I give birth.”

  “Which means Amara will die,” Drake added.

  “Yes,” I said. “But there may be a chance Lilith can give me another soul—”

  “No way,” Quaid said, his brows high. “Would that actually work?”

  “It might,” Drake said, knowing it was all another big lie that we’d have to correct later. “It’s Ara’s only hope, unfortunately, because I made a promise to my sister and I will keep it.”

  I had to look away from him; he was awfully convincing when he wanted to be—enough that I wondered for a moment if he was telling the truth. I think even Lord Eden wasn’t sure, but he didn’t know even half of what I knew.

  “I’ll protect her, Em,” Jason said softly. “She’s safe with me, you know that.”

  “And what about you?” she said, her voice trembling a little. “Walt wants you dead for fornicating with the Queen. And he has the means to kill you.”

  “Emily, you needn’t worry,” Lord Eden cut in. “I know you care a great deal for Jason, and for Ara, but they are both more than capable of taking care of themselves.”

  “And what about when we do win the manor back?” she asked, her teary eyes flicking from Lord Eden to David. “She has to face punishment for her crimes—”

  “There will be no punishment,” David said sharply.

  “But it’s the law—”

  “Screw the damn law.” David slammed his fist down on the table. “No one, I repeat, no one, will brutalise my wife. And that is final!”

  “But even the King and Queen aren’t above the law,” Quaid reminded him. “The people will demand a trial.”

  “Then a trial they shall have,” Drake cut in before David could speak. “Who here will testify? Who here will confess to seeing Amara and Jason commit this act of sin?” He made a point of glaring into each face with those commanding oceanic eyes. “Because without proof—cold, hard, proof—all they have is a heated confession from a mad King.”

  He had a good point. A damn good point.

  “Why didn’t Blade think of that?” I asked.

  “He did,” Quaid said. “But before we had the chance to argue it, Walt got word that the child was evil and decided to use your case as a guise to kill her.” He looked at Drake. “No offence to your unborn wife.”

  “None taken.” Drake bowed his head.

  “Who told him?” I asked, the curiosity flaring. “Who keeps spilling all our secrets?”

  No one had any suggestions.

  “We’ll make a full inquiry when we take back the manor,” David promised. “For now, we need to discuss the finer points of our plan.”

 
; “Right.” Lord Eden picked up the tallest green man and placed it at the bridge to the island. “Infiltration Team will meet here at oh-three-hundred. That’s Drake, David, Quaid, Emily, Ara, Jason and myself. Ara and Jason will branch off at the entrance to the tunnel, but wait in the shadows until you get a signal from us to move.”

  “What will the signal be?” I asked.

  “I’ll fly overhead and caw at you,” Drake said.

  “Fly?” Emily said, and all heads turned to my real father.

  He reached into the pocket of his black pants and pulled out his garnet. “I have the ability to transform.”

  “Into what?” Quaid asked.

  “A crow.”

  “At that point,” Lord Eden said, “Ara and Jason will move across here—” he ran his fingertip along the rear of the village and across the open field that was once an orchard, “—you will need to be careful, because after signalling you, Drake will then fly down and signal his Warriors, who will be waiting in five teams, here—” he pointed to the bridge, “—here, here, here, and here—” he added, aiming the finger at the four cliff points around the island. “They will need to be briefed on the importance of Ara’s mission, and instructed to assist her and Jason in any way they can.”

  Drake nodded once. “And they will be dressed in Lilithian colours.”

  “Good idea,” David said, folding his hands together with a little clap as he looked at Drake. “Weapons. What can you supply us with?”

  “Anything you desire.”

  “How ’bout our missing venom stores?” Quaid said. “Any chance you wanna hand those back over?”

  Drake’s mouth pulled in a conceited smile. “I may, if you ask me politely.”

  “That’s enough,” I said, “both of you. We’ll need that venom to tip our swords. It’s non-negotiable.”

  “But a simple please would not go astray,” Drake offered.

  “Please,” I said sharply. “And thank you. And that is the end of it. Now—” I looked at David, “—when can we get someone out to Elysium to collect our weapons?”

  Emily broke away then and went to sit on my bed while the boys and I continued the discussion. After a minute or two, Jason went to sit beside her. I listened to what Dad and David were saying, with half an ear aimed at Jason and Emily’s conversation.

  “Do you want to talk about it,” he asked her, gently cupping his hand over hers. It felt weird to see him hold onto her that way—his hand being so much like David’s—and my mind fought hard to reason that they had once been in what Emily thought was love.

  “How do I keep getting it so wrong?” she said in a quiet voice, checking the gathering around the table to see if anyone heard. “He was bound by Lilith’s Curse—to love Ara. But I broke it. I thought that meant love.”

  This piqued my curiosity even more than the battle plan.

  “Em.” I walked over and stood by the bed. “What happened? Did you and Blade have a fight?”

  “No.” She conspicuously checked the group again. “We broke up.”

  “What?”

  “He stayed behind because he cares more about you than he does me.”

  I shook my head in confusion. “But… the curse. It was broken, he—”

  “It was an act,” Jason said.

  “An act? Why?”

  “He didn’t want to lose his job,” she explained. “If he was bound by the curse, he’d have been reassigned.”

  “He clearly saw Emily as an easy out,” Jason said to me, his eyes landing in sympathetic pools on Emily as he swept her head against his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Em.”

  She nodded.

  “What an asshole!” I scooped my dress under my butt and sat down next to Em.

  “He just wanted to keep his job,” she said.

  “No, he used you,” I insisted. “That has to be the most selfish thing any guy has done to you so far.”

  Jason’s lips curled up in a cynical smile. “I think what my brother did was worse.”

  “That doesn’t count,” I said, straightening my spine ceremoniously.

  “Why?”

  “Because I love him.”

  Jase laughed, but Em just smiled sadly.

  “You will, Em.” Jason made her look at him, answering some unspoken question. “I’m sorry he did that to you, but the right guy is out there for you.”

  “And, I mean, you only have an eternity to find him,” I added.

  “I wish that made me feel better,” she said.

  Mike’s booming laughter drowned out our conversation then, and the other men joined the chorus. It was pretty clear at this point that they were done discussing the battle plan and had moved on to telling the worst jokes they knew.

  “So, who’s hungry?” David asked over all the commotion.

  An amalgamated purr of responses filled the air. Quaid scooped up the green men, Lord Eden rolled up the map of Loslilian, and they began discussing Operation Dinner Plan. I wasn’t hungry for food, though. I needed blood. My veins were raised and I felt weak and a little tired. But the night was just beginning and it felt somewhat impolite to steal a vampire away and feed off it while we had guests.

  “Ara?” David said. “I’m going into town with the guys to round up some humans. Will you be okay here for a bit?”

  “I’ll stay with her,” Mike offered.

  David patted him gently on the back. “I already knew that, bro. I wasn’t going to leave her alone.” He looked at Jason then. “You coming, brother?”

  Jase stood up with a grin. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Wait.” I stood too. “You’re not bringing them back here to kill, are you?”

  David looked at Drake; Drake looked at Lord Eden; Lord Eden groaned, rolling his eyes shut.

  “We’re vampires, Ara,” David said.

  “I don’t agree with it,” Lord Eden said, “But right now, just days before battle, we need to be at peak strength.”

  “And killing humans will achieve that?” I said, folding my arms.

  “Unfortunately, it will.”

  “But we don’t have to kill them tonight, if you prefer,” Jason said, “we can finish them off for breakfast or something.”

  “Speak for yourself,” David said.

  I sighed heavily and sat back down.

  “We’re bringing back a rack of ribs, too,” Quaid added. “Some of us around here need to eat real food.”

  “Good,” Mike grunted. “I’m starving. And get some beers. If we’re going in to battle in two days, I want to celebrate tonight.”

  “Celebrate what?” Em said.

  “Our little family reunion.” He motioned around at all of us.

  We all smiled, pulled closer by the warmth of that reminder.

  ***

  Out of respect for Lord Eden, no one used their venomous fangs or killed their humans once they were done with them, and everyone ate the giant spread of food we’d laid out on the table—even those that don’t typically eat human food. By the time the Lilithian stomachs were full with food and the Vampires were full with blood, a different kind of hunger set in over my kind.

  Mike and Quaid looked to Emily—the only female vampire—as a source of nourishment, while I had my pick of the entire bunch. Lord Eden and my real father were instantly ruled out. So was Jase. Which left only David.

  When I looked at him and my body heated up a few degrees, imagining he and I, and that human girl on the chair beside him, going upstairs to end our night in privacy, Lord Eden and Drake stood and politely announced their leave. It seemed to take forever, but when they finally got in their cars and drove away, David and I were both practically ready to strip off right there in the middle of the forest.

  As the headlights faded in the distance, Jase came trotting down the porch steps, shaking his head. “You might wanna stay out here.”

  “Why?” I looked up at the house.

  “They’re getting a little… carried away in there.”

 
; “Who?”

  “Emily, Mike, and Quaid.” He slid his index finger in and out of a circle he made with his other hand.

  “On my bed?!”

  “No.” He cleared his throat. “On the floor by the fire.”

  David laughed into a fist.

  “I’m gonna take a walk.” Jase jerked his thumb to the forest behind him. “I might take that redhead human with me.”

  “Stay safe, brother,” David warned. “We’ve got two guards out there, but—”

  “I will,” Jase assured him, backing away with that boyish grin on his face. He turned then and vanished, leaving David and I, and my hunger, alone.

  David’s warm body pressed against mine before I expected it to, and he exhaled into my hair, the rich smell of fresh blood on his breath. “I saw it, you know.”

  “Saw what?” I rolled my hips into his as the desire within him moved his body against mine in ways that made me wish we were naked.

  “I saw you imagine drinking from me as I kill that blonde.”

  My blood cells froze. He was never supposed to see that. I stepped back from him. “I…”

  “Don’t explain it, Ara.” He moved into me again. “You don’t have to feel guilty; you don’t have to understand the desire. All that matters is that I saw it, and it was the sexiest thing I have ever seen.”

  “I won’t do it, though,” I warned.

  “You will.” He kissed my head, cupping the side of my face as if to stop me trying to get away. “Because it’s a natural thing for vampires to do, Ara—we all do it eventually.”

  “Have threesomes?”

  “Blood threesomes, yes.”

  “And what about the sex that comes with blood hunger?”

  “I don’t know what will happen, Ara—in the moment. But we’re going to take her upstairs with us. We’re going to clear a space on the floor, lay a blanket out, and you’re going to taste the blood I drink from her as my body processes it. And whatever happens after that, we will take as it comes.”

  My insides trembled and my mouth filled with saliva. I couldn’t deny him, because I wanted that so bad I felt a hot sensation between my thighs.