Cat couldn’t remember the last time she’d blinked or breathed. These were the people she wanted to belong to? Suddenly Xavier’s terror—his reaction to her heritage—made sense. If the Ofarians could do that to their own people—their own daughters—imagine what they could do to a race they held enslaved.
Lea swiped at her tears with the back of her hand and looked down at the wet streaks in disgust.
“My husband and child died in a dumb car accident. Not because of anything I did, not because magic went awry or some terrible alien force took them out. He was taking my baby to the grocery store and a distracted moving van driver slammed into them. I had no one to go to. No family to hold me. No one of blood left to comfort me. No one!”
Oh, God.
“When did this happen?”
“Six years ago.”
So much conflicting information. Cat had no idea which way was up. And she couldn’t let on that she knew anything about the Ofarians at all, how Xavier and Gwen had claimed the whole system had changed. “That’s a long time, six years, to go without family. Couldn’t you try again?”
Lea laughed through her tears and it was nasty and devious. “Nothing will change with them. Ever.”
“How do you know that, if you’ve been gone so long? How do you know your sister isn’t sick with worry? Maybe she’s tried to contact you.”
“She hasn’t. She couldn’t even say his name when I told her about him. Neither could my dad. It was John, by the way. My John. But Gwen’s all high and mighty now. She’s part of what’s leading them. She was the one who brought the old Board down and then built everything back up in the way she wanted. If she’s my daddy’s daughter, then nothing has changed, no matter what she says.”
Whoa. Gwen was Lea’s sister?
Something wasn’t right. Either Lea had Gwen pegged wrong, or Xavier had been tricked into believing something about Gwen and the Ofarians that wasn’t true. He’d told Cat that Gwen was one of the most honorable people he’d met, and that she’d changed her people for the better. The thing was, Xavier wasn’t easily tricked into anything. He was cautious with a capital C. He hadn’t wanted to trust Gwen, but some part of him did.
“Wouldn’t matter anyway.” Lea pushed away from the dresser, and the cologne bottle rocked and tipped over. “I made myself disappear. Changed my name. If she and my daddy couldn’t be there for me when I needed them the most, I wasn’t going to turn around with open arms whenever they decided it was okay to talk to me. It doesn’t work that way. I’ve picked my side and, like them, I’m sticking to it.”
Lea was dry-eyed now, that cunning, hard look settling like ice crystals over her features. She was doing this—helping Michael take Secondaries, particularly Ofarians—for revenge. And that scared Cat most of all.
“It makes me happy,” Lea said, “to see Ofarians not in control. I like to see them scurry about, all confused. I want to see them used, in the way I was used all those years ago, when I was young and trusting, and was made an example of the consequences of disobedience and punishment for the entire Ofarian world.”
Cat rubbed her cheek on her shoulder. All of this was so foreign, so out of her league. But there were general truths and emotions behind it all, reasons that defied Primary or Secondary definitions. “There’s an easier way. Go to Gwen and talk to her. Chances are she’s changed as much as you have. You’re sisters. She talks, you talk. She listens, you listen.”
“Says the newbie,” Lea spit. “I can’t wait until you’re out of here and you can see what they’re like for yourself.”
Cat gasped. “You’re letting me go?”
Lea rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. “Technically, Michael doesn’t need you. He already has two Ofarians in his collection. He wants you, but he doesn’t need you. Plus”—she glanced at the hallway door—“he has something better now.”
Cat’s gut roiled. Her voice bottomed out. “What do you mean.” Then, suddenly, she knew. “Oh, God. Xavier.”
Lea sauntered back to stand over Cat again. “He came for you, you know.”
Cat couldn’t catch her breath. Xavier had come for her. Where was he? Was Gwen far behind?
“He made a trade.” Lea examined her fingernails. “You for him. So Michael agreed to let you go and Xavier’s now bound to him.”
Oh no no no. If he’d done that, the action had been borne of passion, out of impulse. Chances were he’d gone hunting for Cat without contacting Gwen. He was alone.
Xavier was strong and would survive whatever it was Michael wanted him for, but kneeling at an Ofarian’s feet again, cowering under Lea’s whip…Cat feared it might destroy him, piece by piece.
And he’d done it for her. Stupid, brave, selfless man who’d already suffered enough for a generation.
Wait. Maybe this was exactly what Xavier wanted. Maybe he had a plan after all. If Michael was letting her go free, the solution was simple. All she had to do was contact Gwen and the Ofarians. Tell them everything. Lea had no idea Cat knew Gwen, or that they’d spoken. Lea and Michael would assume she wouldn’t know where to go, and that she’d never alert the Primary police. But she’d bring the Ofarians back here—or to L.A. or Miami or wherever Michael would be. They’d save Xavier. Break apart Michael’s sick “collection.”
And Lea would be in her people’s custody, at their mercy, again.
“Where is he?” Cat demanded, because she couldn’t give away her cards. “In this house?”
“He’s kind of sexy, your loverboy.”
Cat took that as a yes. A yes that enflamed hatred.
“You know that’s what he was made for, right? To fuck women? I know which Tedran he was, too, when he was in the Plant. How they prized him.”
“Shut up, Lea. Just shut up.”
Lea ignored her. “Michael’s coming to terms with your freedom. He may still want you, but Xavier’s far more valuable in the end. The last Tedran and all that.” She started for the door. “Anyway, that’s why I came here, to tell you the good news, so to speak. And to get a last look at you.”
She left, and Cat tried not to feel like Lea had taken hope with her.
TWENTY-SIX
The daydream played on a loop.
Xavier imagined Cat standing on a pristine, secluded beach of white sand, staring out at water so clear he could see the bottom. A storm rose behind her, turning the world ugly and violent, but ahead, over the water, only a few clouds danced across an otherwise sapphire blue sky.
A boat appeared in the shallows, rocking and drifting toward her, the waves slapping lightly against it. She pulled the boat to her, and with barely a glance at the great expanse of water, she stepped into the boat and picked up the oars. Her arms moved steadily, propelling the boat farther and farther out. The look on her face was determined but also excited.
After she broke through the waves she drifted across the open ocean, one tanned arm draped over the side, her fingers trailing through the water. Nothing around her in any direction—the land had since fallen away and so had the storm—and yet she was perfectly content.
Cat, out in an element that terrified him. An element that had managed to cage him once again.
In the distance, another boat appeared. In it sat Gwen and Griffin, who smiled at Cat and paddled over with long, smooth strokes. They pulled Cat’s smaller boat to theirs and helped her over the side and into their craft. They rowed away.
The basement door opened, throwing a weak shaft of daylight down the stairs. Xavier raised his head from his crossed forearms. They’d taken him off the particleboard slab and had removed the cuffs, but hadn’t let him out of the bleak basement cell in nearly twenty-four hours. When the kid, Sean, brought him food and a bucket to piss in, he’d either split himself in two like Michael, or he’d brought with him Jase, the wind cowboy.
Didn’t matter. A deal was a deal. Xavier wasn’t fighting, as long as Cat was safe.
“You came yourself,” Xavier said, standing as Michael crossed
the empty floor. “Thought that might’ve been beneath you.”
Michael gave him a wry look then turned back to shout up the stairs. “He’s good. You can come down, Lea.”
“I’m only ‘good’ if Cat’s hell and gone away from here.”
“She is.” Lea reached the bottom of the steps and came over, holding her hands behind her back. “Put her on a plane myself this morning.”
Cat’s boat was drifting out to sea…Gwen’s was coming to meet her…
“We also put a man on her,” Lea added. “Someone just as loyal to Michael as Jase and Sean. I’ll know where she goes, who she talks to. And if you so much as flinch in my or Michael’s direction, he has orders to take her out.”
If she was trying to get Xavier to reveal something, it wouldn’t work. He narrowed his eyes at Michael. “What now?”
With two fingers, Michael gestured Lea forward. The snide look on her face should have prepared Xavier for what she hid behind her back, but, in truth, he never expected to see a neutralizer cuff again.
In the Plant, the whole place—with exception of the rooms where the Ofarians had drained the Tedrans’ magic—had been decked out in neutralizers, which prevented Tedrans from starting a glamour spell. When the Ofarians had tried to move the slaves, they’d slapped neutralizer cuffs around the Tedrans’ wrists. Cold metal, a sickly green glowing light. No magic.
Then the Plant was shut down, all the Tedrans freed, and a new Ofarian government came to power. The neutralizers shouldn’t have existed anymore, but Lea dangled one from her finger.
Hadn’t he just wished for something like this? For what made him Secondary to be taken away? He stared at the little green light, already feeling it sucking the magic from him.
He truly had come full circle.
Blank faced, he addressed Lea. “How’d you get that?”
Michael looked shocked that Xavier knew what it was.
Lea shrugged, extended the neutralizer out farther. “I have my ways.” Her eyes shifted slightly as she said it. Discomfort. Lies.
Unless she just happened to have that thing lying around, she’d had to have gotten it from the Ofarians. The technology wasn’t used anymore—no need, if he was the only Tedran left—which meant Lea had to have secretly contacted someone inside the Ofarian world to get it for her. Otherwise it would have raised a big red flag that Xavier was in some kind of trouble. A benefit to being the last of his kind.
There was only one possibility: Lea had a spy somewhere inside the Ofarian ruling class.
Xavier wordlessly held out his arm. Lea slapped the cold metal around his wrist and the sallow green light peered back at him. He couldn’t stare at it too long; the gentle pulsing of its power hypnotized him, sent him hurtling back in time to the place he’d almost—almost—managed to leave in the past. He rolled his long sleeve over the light. If he didn’t have to look at it, he couldn’t be reminded of what he’d lost. Who he’d lost.
Satisfied, Michael headed for the stairs. “Come with me.”
Xavier followed, exiting on the main floor that was filled with bright morning light reflecting off the drifts of snow piled high outside. Jase slouched on a stool at the kitchen island.
“Where are the others?” Xavier asked. “Sean? The Ofarians?”
Michael ignored him. “I want you to cook.”
“What?” Xavier shook his head. “That’s not why you took me. What you really want from me.”
Michael smirked. “No. That’s not what I really want from you. But for now, it’ll do. Remember, you’re mine.” He pushed a small pad of paper and a pencil over the island. “Dinner menu for seven. Anything you need, we’ll get. Heard good things about you.”
Then Michael and Lea left by the front door, leaving Xavier in a kitchen that was as big as Shed’s. Jase idly drummed his fingers on the countertop, then reached into his back pocket, pulled out a tiny music player, and stabbed the earbuds into place. As Xavier edged toward the pencil and paper, he could feel currents of air surge around his body. Jase was testing him, feeling him out for any sudden moves. The cowboy, corralling him.
He wondered where Michael was keeping the other Ofarians. If they were locked up in some other part of the house, or if they were wandering free like Jase, their power knocked out by nelicoda and their loyalty won by some horrific bargain. He thought of this other person they claimed was watching Cat. Was he Secondary, too? Or just some hired muscle?
A deep, dangerous rumble came from behind the door next to the fireplace. More than a sound, more than a vibration, it was a feeling. Ominous and filled with rage, and very, very real. The scent of smoke seeped into the house. Jase threw a long look at the door, but otherwise seemed unworried. He faced the counter again, casual as ever, and Xavier knew that asking the air elemental about what was behind Door Number One would be futile.
He took the pad of paper and pencil, and switched his brain toward food. He’d hold up his end of the bargain long enough for Gwen to pull in Cat’s boat. He’d cook, because that’s what he always did to forget.
Shortly after sunset, Xavier banged and clanged at the stove. There were sauce splashes all over the burners, dirty bowls piled on the counter and crumbs tucked into every crevice. The mess went against everything he’d been taught. He didn’t care.
Around the corner, in the office nook tucked into a hallway, Lea tapped away at a laptop. Behind him, Jase still sat at the island. The two Ofarians, Robert and the new “acquisition,” Shelby, sat holding hands at the kitchen table. They’d both been dosed with enough nelicoda to numb their powers for the night, and Robert, who was pockmarked and a little greasy at the temples, was telling Shelby that if she just did as she was told, all would be well back home.
As Xavier ran water over the cooked noodles, he felt Shelby watching him. “He’s Tedran,” she said to Robert, as though Xavier couldn’t hear her.
“Yeah,” Robert said, and cleared his throat.
“So he has to be the one who helped take down the Board and stop Mendacia. He has to be—”
“The last one,” Robert offered. “Yep.”
Just then, Michael entered the kitchen. Xavier would know the sound of those leather dress shoes anywhere.
“It’s ready.” Xavier snapped the kitchen towel off his shoulder and threw it against the backsplash. “Come and fucking get it.”
Jase actually cracked a smile. But Michael wasn’t looking at the food or the fucked-up little family he’d created and forced to sit around the table. He was staring at Xavier with the most disturbing expression—eyes so wide and clear and crazed. The corners of his mouth twitched into an uneven grin. His shoulders dropped, his arms going lax at his sides. He looked to Shelby, then back to Xavier.
“What?” Xavier snarled.
“Jase,” Michael said, his voice eerily distant. “Take Xavier downstairs.”
Lea appeared in the kitchen doorway, arms crossed at her waist. She eyed Michael, and though she was trying to sound nonchalant, she was clearly wary. “What’re you doing?”
Michael ignored her. Jase obediently slid off his stool, and Xavier lurched under the sudden pressure of air at his back, which steered him toward the basement cell.
Hours later, Jase came back to get him. As he ushered Xavier through the house and up the stairs, he heard voices in the game room—Sean and Lea and the Ofarians. Someone switched on the stereo and awful dance music with a driving beat thundered through the house.
Jase took Xavier to a small bedroom at the very back of the second floor, decorated in red plaid and knotty pine. Something was up, and it had to do with the terrible way Michael had examined Xavier earlier. As presumed, Michael entered the bedroom, looking incredibly pleased with himself. Jase stood guard in the open doorway.
Xavier’s heart was pounding. “What’s this about?”
A twisted glee lit Michael’s eyes. “In a moment I’m sending Shelby up. You’re going to give her a baby.”
Xavier was sure he hadn
’t heard correctly. He blinked. Opened his mouth.
Michael said, “You heard me.”
Xavier squeezed shut his eyes. This wasn’t happening. Not again. “I won’t do that. I can’t.”
“But that’s what you’re good for,” Michael said with false innocence. “Lea told me you were some sort of breeding stud to the Ofarians. That you could get any woman pregnant, even those with problems.” He lifted his hands in a praise-Jesus gesture. “Oh, ye of the magic sperm.”
The Burned Man materialized on the bed. His scarred hand smoothed over the comforter, the melted side of his lips pulled back to bare his teeth in that horrible smile. The real world spun away from Xavier as he was pitched into hell. “Fuck you,” he whispered. To Michael and the Burned Man.
“No.” Michael’s nasty grin died. “Fuck Shelby.”
Xavier didn’t have to do this. Cat should have been freed a day and a half ago. She would have made contact with Gwen by now. He had to believe that, had to trust that the Ofarians were on their way.
Xavier shoved his hair away from his face and glared at Michael. “I said no.”
In the doorway, Jase shifted on his feet.
Michael narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not having sex with Shelby. You can try to go after Cat, but here’s the thing. I don’t think I believe you when you say you put someone on her. I think that you like to carry everything, and everyone, you own with you at all times. Like her painting sitting on the mantel down there. Part of you actually believes that’s her. And I don’t think you have any other Secondaries under your control down in Florida. I think that was all bullshit just to scare me into doing whatever you wanted. So guess what? I’m calling your bluff. And I’m telling you that not only did Cat make it back to Florida safe and alone, but that she knows exactly how to contact the Ofarians. She’s already spoken to them and they already suspected she might be in danger. They protect their own, and I’m guessing that they’re already mobilizing, already on their way here. So my answer is no. There’s no fucking way I’m sleeping with Shelby or anyone else. Not while Cat’s still out there.”
A Taste of Ice (The Elementals) Page 24
