by Tijan
I grinned and rasped out, “No, not you. She meant like an empath was inside of me. Sometimes… it’s been known to happen. If an empath is skilled enough, they can find someone and look outward—look at where they’re at. I did it. I had Blue do it to Kates for me.”
“You think that someone was inside of you to see where you are?”
“I know it.” The moment my eyes had opened, everything flooded to me. “Kates told me that Blue was in a coma. If I’d gone further inside of her I would’ve seen that Kates hadn’t put Blue in a coma. She took her captive. Blue was being held in the same castle where they took me with Emily and Adam. I didn’t search inside of her enough.”
Roane stood and crossed to his closet. I watched as he flung open the doors and quickly rifled inside. “Tell me more.” The command was thrown over his shoulder.
“Blue was inside my head. They made her go in when I had my shield down.”
Roane paused and looked at me.
I swallowed painfully. “She got inside and they’re coming here.”
“That’s what he intended the whole time.” Roane suddenly stopped and straightened to his fullest height. Each muscle on his back stood out, primed and livid.
In that moment, I was suddenly aware of how Roane was a vampire. He was a predator and now he’d go against another predator. Roane was a Hunter. Their skills went unmatched by other vampires. It was why they were chosen to be the hunters of their own kind, but… Lucan was his human brother. And he led, what Kates believed to be, a revolution.
“They had no intention of you delivering a message to the Immortal. Let me guess, they have her boyfriend and they hoped she’d give herself up for him?”
I nodded. “How’d you know?”
“I can read thoughts. The girl they think is the Immortal has no idea what a shield is—and your shield was down too, Davy. I read that they’d taken Adam and Emily. I know that Kates used you.”
“Did you read inside of my head what your brother really intends to do with the Immortal?”
Roane paused.
“He wants my blood because he wants his Family to have the Immortal’s powers. He’s hoping to have an army of unstoppable vampires so that they can reverse the decree. The one that states they can’t hunt, bite, or kill humans. The one that started the Hunters in the first place and the one that’ll allow Kates to do all the slaying she wants.”
I looked at my hands, lifted them upwards, and gasped as I saw a glimpse of the sparkling diamond blood that I’d dreamt about. My eyes closed and then my normal skin was back. But I swore….
“No,” Roane clipped out. “My brother doesn’t just want to reverse the decree. My brother wants to rule the entire Vampire nation.” He lifted his eyes once again to me. Then he reached inside his closet and pulled out a lethal sword. He strapped the sword diagonally across his back and lifted a gold necklace over his head. It hung on the apex of his chest. I wondered at the significance when I saw that a small leaf emblem that dangled from the chain.
“Well…,” I searched for something to say. “At least he’s ambitious.”
Roane clipped out, “His ‘ambition’ just sealed his fate.” Then his jaw clenched, unclenched, and clenched again. “He wants you. He can’t have you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Gregory came for me. He knocked once and announced his presence through the door.
“I’ll… give me a second.” I glanced around with a heavy head, drooped shoulders, and my heart was… not in my chest, but I moved my body as if it still belonged to me. Gregory knocked once more before I opened the door. “Okay. I’m ready.”
He nodded with that same look in his eyes that I’d seen the first time. They were shrewd and he still looked at me in distaste, but I might’ve detected a small bit of sympathy. I wasn’t sure. I was just happy that it wasn’t Wren.
Gregory led me out. As we passed a circular stairwell in the middle of the hallway, I heard the buzz downstairs. The floor shook underneath my feet. The excitement in the air was addictive. I felt their thirst for blood. Every muscle in their bodies was stretched to the fullest from their anticipation.
A war was brewing.
As soon as we hit the outside air, something reeled inside of me. I felt another frenzy of excitement, rage, and carnal desire. Unlike inside, this frenzy was twice as bad. I looked out and saw one thing. I shouldn’t have been able to see Roane, but I did. He stood on a hill, a dark figure among the shadows around him. He was a vampire and at that moment, I felt with confidence that he was the best.
There was no wind. The night was still, eerily so, but I felt the frenzy of activity from Roane’s Family behind me. I felt it from the oncoming army too. Roane stood between the two armies and I wondered why he stood where he did.
As I got into the back seat, Gregory shut the door. As he slid beside me from the other side, I grasped his hand and shot inside before I realized what I had intended.
He wanted revenge. It was what he thirsted for, almost more than anything, but he’d been given an order. He intended to fulfill that order and I choked back tears as I heard Roane ordering him to protect me, keep me safe, and fulfill that duty above anything else. It cost Gregory, but he intended to see it through.
I almost shot back out of him, but I gritted my teeth and remembered my mistake with Kates. I looked further and saw the reason he wanted revenge. Raitscliff.
I remembered Roane’s words. ‘Raitscliff has vowed your death since Hartsdale.’
Now I understood.
Raitscliff had turned Gregory’s daughter. He sought revenge by murdering Raitscliff’s second in command. Both vampires wanted the other’s throat now.
I shuddered from the rage inside of Gregory, but I went further and got a rush of memories, emotions, and even worse, I heard his little girl. She laughed softly, delicately when he crooned as a proud father for her to sleep. They were both human in this memory. Then there was another memory where he held his arms out for her as she took her first steps.
She had golden curls and the warm brown eyes like her father. Then I saw when she’d been changed into a vampire for an enemy Family. As I started to pull out of him, I brushed against another thread of emotions. It was one of his beliefs. He believed in Roane. He believed so fully, it brought tears to my eyes.
I gasped again and this time, I was inside of Roane. I saw through his eyes and felt inside his body. I felt his strength and fierce resolve. I didn’t stop to wonder how I was inside of him, but I was. I stood on that hill, cloaked in darkness. I felt freed as an animal of the world, possibly the best.
Roane didn’t relish his darkness. I felt a surge of sadness, but I didn’t search through that. I couldn’t, not yet. I looked out through his eyes. Unlike the dark reddish tint that I’d seen through Kates’ eyes, his were crystal clear. His vision was magnified to make out a single droplet on a blade of grass. He saw everything.
He was chillingly patient as an army of vampires approached with the symbol of a lion painted on their bodies. They were on foot, silent and lethal. Their bodies weaved in and out of the shadows that were overcast from the woods surrounding Roane’s home. They hoped for a surprise attack.
They failed.
He sniffed the air—Raitscliff. Roane took another long shuddering sniff and something pricked inside of him. There was no Lucan in the approaching army. Sixty beasts led by Raitscliff. He had forty behind him. The odds were favorable for the Roane Family.
“Get out of me, Davina!” Roane snarled and then shoved me out.
The car had pulled away, but I hadn’t noticed. Gregory watched out the windows.
“What does Lucas intend to do?” My voice was scratchy.
Each muscle in his thick neck shifted until Gregory peered at me squarely. He had no idea that I’d been in there and that I knew what made him tick. “Lucas has a plan. He always has a plan. It should not matter to a human such as yourself.”
I straightened in my seat. “I mig
ht be human, but I’m the reason all of this is happening. I don’t care what you think of me. I care about what happens tonight. I want to know what Lucas is planning.”
Gregory stared at me. “We both know what he plans.”
Lucan’s death.
“Lucan isn’t back there. He’s not going to Lucas’ house. It’s just Raitscliff—”
Gregory didn’t move. He did nothing and yet, I felt his attention snap. It was now solely directed on
me.
I continued with a dry mouth, “I… you know what I am.” It wasn’t the time to waste words. “You know what I can do. I was inside of you. I know what he did and I know what you did doesn’t measure against what he did. It was wrong. I’m not a vampire. I don’t understand you … people. To be honest, I don’t care to ever understand, but I have a proposition….” Here we go—
