High Society (The High Stakes Saga Book 3)

by Casey Bond

I knew the feel of it. The way it pushed you forward, clawing at you to get up if you failed, screaming through your mind that you could do better. That you had to be better. Different. More. Unapologetic about your abilities. “But you don’t fear it?”

  “No, Eve. I don’t. My brother, you will find, believes that he has sacrificed much for his siblings. I know better. Enoch knows nothing of true sacrifice.”

  “And you do?” I baited.

  “I have found that turning oneself over to complete darkness is the only way to find the scant amounts of light left in this world.”

  With those words, he glided across the yard to the cellar and removed the stick I’d wedged in the handles before lifting the wooden slab. He descended the steps and let the darkness of the cellar envelop him, but that wasn’t the darkness of which he’d been speaking. It wasn’t anything as simple as shadows and lack of light; it was something inside of him. Something broken and desperate. Something I recognized, because I felt the same way sometimes.

  I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the sounds that came out of the small, dank space. The struggle. The gulps. My clone’s racing heartbeat. The way she let out a sigh as he finished drinking. And the smell of her blood on his mouth when he emerged.

  I was furious. “You think you’re stronger because you give in to the darkness, Asa? Well, you’re not. It makes you weak. It makes you careless and… Do you ever stop to think about what you’re doing before you do it? Just now, you could’ve lost control and turned her. You could’ve given her what she wanted all along!”

  He was in front of me in a flash, grabbing my forearm and squeezing it painfully tight. His eyes were wild with bloodlust. “I was in control the entire time, Eve. I knew what I was doing. But let me ask you this: Do you? You’re playing with fire. What you and your little friend should do is leave. Leave this time and place and go home. You can wait for Enoch there.”

  “You might hate him, Asa, but you love him, too.”

  “Of course I do. He’s my brother.”

  “Then why let something as insignificant as a woman tear you apart?”

  “Because she wasn’t insignificant!” he roared. “I loved her, and Enoch killed her because of it.” His dark lashes fluttered and he pushed me away. “Go.”

  My chest felt heavy. Did Enoch really kill the woman he loved? I couldn’t imagine why. There had to be a reason. Either she did something to provoke him, or she was scheming behind Asa’s back. Enoch wouldn’t just kill her because his brother loved her. That was ridiculous. Asa’s despair had obviously distorted his view of his brother.

  “Eve,” he pleaded softly. “Go.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t care!” he shouted. “Just get out of my sight!”

  My heart pounded, but I didn’t test him further. I ran like hell to Titus, all the way through the house and up to his attic room. I met Terah in the hallway and she let me pass without as much as a word. “I guess you heard all that.”

  “Of course I did.” She sauntered down the staircase while I resisted the urge to kick her between her shoulder blades and send her sprawling onto the landing. If I was lucky, maybe she’d break her dainty neck.

  “Eve?” Titus gaped, pulling me into his room. Not that it could really be considered a dwelling. It was a dusty attic with an equally dusty cot. “What the hell?”

  “I know.”

  The look of bewilderment on Titus’ face said it all. “He wants to make anti-venin. What does he think he’ll be able to do with it?”

  “My guess is that he wants to inoculate the human population against the vampires. Ultimately, I think he’s looking for a way to make human blood toxic to vamps. I think that’s what he tried to do with mine in an upgrade that didn’t take.”

  Titus cursed. “You remember it?”

  “Not enough of it,” I answered grimly. “Just lying on a hospital bed wondering why my limbs felt so heavy, and hearing Kael tell Victor the upgrade had failed.” I flopped down on his cot, puffs of dust floating into the air. “I wish I could remember more, but at the same time, I’m terrified to know everything.”

  He gently sat down beside me. “I’m having dreams, too. I remember being in a tank of water, blinking my eyes open and feeling around for a way out. Kael stood outside the tank watching me, but wouldn’t help. He just kept making notes on a clipboard. I could hear the pen’s tip scratching across the surface every so often, even inside the tank. I banged on the acrylic but he wouldn’t let me out, or drain the water or anything. He just watched. I swam up, looking for a pocket of air, but there wasn’t one. I remember feeling so angry with him that he wouldn’t do something. Anything. But that was the point, I guess. Another test. And when I couldn’t fight anymore, I looked around and beside me was another water-filled tank. You were in it.”

  “Was I dead?”

  “No, you were perfectly calm. You floated in the water with a serene look on your face. Your hair was drifting all around you, but you never panicked like I did.”

  I didn’t remember it, but my lungs felt too large for my chest, like I couldn’t get enough air. “I can’t tell dream from memory anymore,” I admitted. “Everything is so foggy. I feel like I’m just crazy.”

  “Well, you are a little crazy,” he teased, putting an arm around my shoulder and pulling me in. “But if you are, then so am I. And at this point, I think it’s safe to say that these visions and dreams are memories surfacing. Maybe time travel affects whatever they gave us to suppress them.”

  “They made me watch a feed from a store’s surveillance video. There was a woman and a little girl, and they kept telling me it was me and my mom. But I remembered my actual mother, and how I’d been brought to the Compound, so I told them they were liars.”

  His hand tensed on my upper arm. “What did they do?”

  “They drugged and tortured me until their lies became my truth.”

  Titus cursed, stood up, and began to pace the narrow path that led from the cot to the door. “Do you remember your entire past now?”

  “No, I can’t remember much, but I remembered knowing that they were liars. That they were feeding me full of false information. I remembered the violating feel of it all.” I paused a moment, my thoughts skittering around. Then I remembered why I went to Titus. “Titus, I need your help with something. It has to do with my clone.”

  He paused and studied me. “That was quite a transition, Eve. You just told me you’ve been tortured into remembering something that never happened, and now you’re all like… Help me with my clone.”

  “Yeah.” I wanted him to stop pacing and focus on something else. Something other than the truth, because if they took me and tortured me, and then gave me a new name and history… they probably did the same to him.

  “I need to know everything you can remember,” he stated. “You need to tell me about your mom and about your real past.”

  Suddenly, my head felt like it was splitting in two. A sudden, intense pain began the moment I tried to sift through my memories. Did Victor and Kael implant something in our brains so that we suffered if we remembered?

  I didn’t want Titus to know I was having any issues. He had enough to think about without me distracting him. “I promise to tell you everything when we have more time, but what I need from you can’t wait, Titus. I can’t do it without you, or without causing too much damage to be helpful.”

  “What do you need me to do?” he asked, switching back to business in a flash.

  “Cut the tech out of her hand.”

  “Why?”

  “We might need it. We might be able to use it to learn more about her.”

  He pursed his lips together in disapproval, but in the end, reached for my hand. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

  “We need a lantern.” I led him to the kitchens and found the one I’d used earlier sitting on a mantle.

  The dark, damp cellar smelled of mildew, soil, and the garlands of garlic hanging in the corner near
est the door. “Where is she?” Titus asked.

  “Farther in,” I answered, ducking down and leading him to her body, which was still tied to the chair. Her head hung down onto her chest. Trails of drying blood flowed from her neck on the right side.

  “Shit,” Titus cursed. “She’s dead.”

  “You already knew that.”

  “Yeah, but I thought maybe he hadn’t completely drained her. I mean, how does a vamp even hold that much blood? It’s gross how they can just gorge themselves on it.”

  “He didn’t kill her because he was hungry.” My heartbeat pounded in my ears. The coppery tang of blood drowned out the loamy scent of garlic and earth. “Asa thought she was too big a threat.”

  Titus pinned me with a look of warning before removing a knife from his belt. I quirked a brow. I’d planned to look around the cellar for one, but he was steps ahead of me. “Took it at dinner and I’m not sorry.”

  “I’m not judging,” I told him, waving him toward the 1776 model. I held the lantern up for him. It cast only a small light in such a dark place.

  He knelt behind the clone’s chair and dragged the knife’s edge across her skin. A thin line of blood welled in its wake. “I hate dull knives,” he complained, sawing through skin and sinew until the containment cell was visible. He used the tip to gently pry it out before carefully disconnecting the circuitry beneath her skin. He shoved the tech into his pocket and stood up.

  Blood dripped from her hand onto the dirt. I sat the lantern down near the puddle. “Titus, can the dead still bleed?”

  His eyes fixed on the puddle forming on the ground in front of him. “She hasn’t been dead for long, so… maybe? I don’t hear a heartbeat.”

  The clone’s finger flinched, then she raised her head and fixed her sharp eyes on me. She screeched, exposing her fangs. They were small, but already beginning to descend. “Titus, get back!” I lifted the hem of my skirt and took out a stake, running toward her.

  Before he could process what was happening, she burst from the ropes and shoved my chest so hard, I flew across the length of the cellar and cracked my head against the wall near the door. She disappeared, using her suit to wink out of sight.

  Titus cursed. “Watch yourself,” he warned. He spun in a slow circle, watching for her to reappear, his stake and the knife ready.

  I stood up and waited. I knew she was coming for me.

  Asa appeared on the stairs. “What’s the commotion?”

  “You didn’t kill her!” I shrieked.

  “I drained her.”

  “No, you turned her! Can’t you tell when you’re doing it?” I yelled.

  He furrowed his brow. “Not really, if you must know. I mean, if I only take a sip, I assume there isn’t enough time for the venom to be pushed into the one from which I’m feeding, but if I drink my fill, I suppose there’s time enough for it to affect them.”

  “The three of you are reckless,” Titus fumed. You have no idea what you’re doing, which makes you even more dangerous. You’re not doing it intentionally, but you don’t have any control over it, either!”

  Asa ignored him, but I knew he would make Titus regret running his mouth. Asa closed the door that led out of the cellar and walked back into the darkened space.

  Titus started swiping the air all around him like a bee was attacking him, too small for him to actually strike. “What is it?” I called out, confused.

  “She took one of my stakes!” he yelled.

  “But she can’t make it disappear…” Asa finished.

  The lantern had toppled over. Oil leaked onto the ground, and while it burned for a moment, it was dying. I heard the sharpened wood slice through the air the instant before I saw it. The stake barreled toward my heart and my clone appeared in front of me, a twisted look of rage on her face. I raised my forearm to block the blow, but she was faster than me. I braced for the pain, thinking of Enoch and how I’d never see him again. The stake found its mark with a crack and a squelch.

  My eyes were pinched shut, but I didn’t feel anything. Nothing hurt. I opened them, expecting to see my own face staring back. Instead, I saw Asa’s back.

  He saved me. He’d stepped in front of the stake.

  “Ouch,” he growled, jerking it from his bicep. He grabbed the 1776 clone by the hair on the back of her head and brought the stake down and through her breastbone with a loud crack. Then, for added measure, he pushed it in further with the heel of his hand.

  As she slowly began to wither and curl in on herself, Asa dropped her to the ground with a huff of disgust. She landed on her side, her mouth gaping open and shut like a fish out of water. He knelt and jerked the stake from her chest and tossed it across the room toward Titus. It landed in front of him, the dirt sticking to her blood.

  One final exhale and she was gone, her eyes fixed on nothing. Her skin turned a mottled shade of gray and she suddenly looked just like the vampires I had staked during countless training sessions, both in and out of the arena.

  She looked like me.

  Asa stood and walked toward the steps, pushing the door open. “I’ll bury her,” he offered.

  Titus picked up his stake and crossed the space to me. “Come on.” Though I heard his words, I couldn’t stop staring at her.

  “Eve. That’s not you.”

  A tear fell from my eye. She was me.

  “Eve,” Asa said so softly, it woke me from the thoughts that had paralyzed me. He ticked his head toward the door. “Go.”

  That was the only word Asa had for me.

  Go.

  Leave.

  Get out of my sight.

  Go back to your time.

  Go home.

  I glanced at Titus and walked toward the steps. My legs felt like they weren’t mine, ponderously heavy but numb. Trudging up the steps, I took a deep breath when I emerged into the fresh air. Down there, it felt like I was drowning again. In the middle of the sea. Unable to move. Unable to breathe. Unable to fight.

  “I need to sit down,” I told Titus.

  “Nope,” he argued. “Keep walking. We can stay outside, but you don’t need to watch what comes next.”

  Emotion bubbled up from somewhere deep within, some place dark and greedy. Some place bloodthirsty. “The part where he buries the woman who could be my twin, you mean?” I exploded. “I hate Victor, and I hate Kael, and I just wish they would die! I want you to put her tech in my hand and let me go home so I can kill them myself, Titus. I want them to pay for what they’ve done. I can’t remember all of it, but I know the memories that are bubbling up only scratch the surface of what they’ve done to us.” Even though I knew I was becoming hysterical, I couldn’t stop the racing of my heart or mind. “I can’t even think straight right now. I can’t get them out of my head. I can’t get away from the clones. I can’t – Ahhh!”

  Stomping heedlessly across the yard, I tripped over a limb and cut my knee on a sharp rock as I fell to the ground. Something sharp and hot sliced through my head.

  “Eve!”

  I held tight to my head until the intense pain stopped, replaced by an uncomfortable pressure that began building behind my eyes. “If you don’t help me, I’m going to die before I can go back and make this right.”

  “Can you walk?” he asked, helping me stay upright.

  “I think so, but I need your help.”

  “Eve—” he stopped abruptly and blew out a breath. “Honestly, I’m terrified to put that thing into you. You’re not well. I don’t know what’s happening to you, but I’m worried that if I implant her tech in your body, it might kill you. I don’t trust Kael enough to chance it without trying to crack into her system first. The chips in the tech don’t hold a ton of information, but there’s basic data there and I want to take a look at it before we decide to do anything else.”

  I tried to wave off his concerns. “I’m fine. I just bumped my head.”

  Titus let go of me and I slumped over. “Looks like a lot more than that to me.” He ga
thered me up and carried me toward the house, remaining uncharacteristically quiet until he reached my room. He placed my feet on the floor and I held tight to him while he turned the knob and pushed the door open. When he tried to pick me back up, I swatted his hand away.

  “Stop. Let me walk.”

  I had only taken a handful of steps before my legs felt too heavy to walk on my own and my head seemed full enough to burst. Sidling beside me and throwing one arm around his shoulders, Titus acted as a crutch as I made my way across the room.

  “Eve, look,” he began, “we have to get you home, and maybe the implant is the way, but I want to think this through before we do something that might hurt you. We need to know what, if anything, sets the clone’s tech apart from ours. What sets them apart from us, other than their tattoos and the fact that their mission in life is to gather venom? When we know as much as possible, we can make a decision about what’s best for you. Not what will ease your anger, not what will bring justice where it’s due, but what’s best for you, Eve. Get that through your stubborn head.”

  He lowered me to the bed and I closed my eyes.

  “I’m not going back to the attic,” he insisted, unlacing his boots. He kicked them off and dragged a small table to the window, hauling a matching chair across the room. Removing the tech from his pocket, he placed it on the table. “I’m going to find every candle I can and work in here. I’ll be right back.”

  As he padded out of the room, I let the cool sheets chill my skin and the darkness ease the insistent throbbing of my head.

  Chapter Six

  Titus

  I peeked in on her a few minutes later, comforted to hear her calm, steady breathing, a rhythmic inhalation and exhalation. Her heartbeat was slow and full. I pulled her door closed and crept back downstairs. I needed a sharp knife. I’d already tried to activate the clone’s tech with the dull knife I swiped from dinner earlier, and it wouldn’t power up. It needed a human host to draw energy from – ironic, given the plutonium patty laying in the middle of the damn thing. A disc strong enough to produce abundant power to punch us through space and time, but not powerful enough to act as its own battery.