“Dissolve the Milan Initiative. The Syntrophos are trained and they are loyal to me. Let them return to their lives. When we have need of them, they will answer my call.”
“You are confident, I’ll give you that.” Marcus considered his offer. “I find cages work better than loyalty.”
“Maybe for you.” Aidan shrugged. “You can leave me in a cage, and I’ll be here waiting for you when you have need of me. But you won’t have my loyalty or cooperation. That offer expires once we leave this room.”
“I see,” Marcus murmured with an amused smile. “Go on.”
“Once we leave this room, you and I will either be friends, working together and learning from each other, or we will be enemies. If I have to break out of this prison, I will, but if I do, I’m taking my army with me. So, you have to decide if you want the son of prophecy and his army of equals in your pocket or standing against you?”
“You ask for too much trust,” Marcus said. “How do I know the Syntrophos are so blindly loyal to you?”
“You put a viper in our midst to sew dissension among us. It didn’t work. Rowan’s Syntrophos might be loyal to her … for now, but it is only a matter of time before I win them over. Rowan herself is already indebted to me.” Aidan sat back against the smooth leather of his chair. “We are an army of Syntrophos, how long do you think cages will hold us? Eventually we will have the power to fight whatever force you or the Senate sends against us.”
“You aren’t there yet, my boy. I am not convinced you have as much to offer as you think.”
“Very well, you want us to take Soma for you, we will. But what will that earn us?”
“Your lives.” Marcus sneered.
“Then I guess we are done here.” Aidan stood to leave.
“Sit down, son. We’re not done negotiating, and I have not dismissed you. I will not release my Syntrophos. You’re asking too much and offering too little. Shall I counter your offer? Or do you have any other little surprises for me?”
“Proceed,” Aidan said, returning to his seat, anxious to close his deal with the devil.
“I will not release the Syntrophos, but I can make their lives somewhat easier.”
“I’m listening.” It wasn’t what he wanted, but Aidan knew from the beginning he wouldn’t get everything he asked for.
“They will remain here at the Initiative where they will continue training. You will come with me for your own training, leaving Naomi behind as a gesture of good faith. The Syntrophos will resume training under Cleo’s direction for another eighteen months, in which you will return often enough to continue your training with your Syntrophos. They will be treated well. Rowan and Spencer’s gifts will only be used for punishment in the most severe cases. The Syntrophos will all live separately. Your bond gives you immense power but your dependency on each other is your greatest weakness. From now on, the Syntrophos will only be together during training. That gives me the confidence they will continue to experience a life of discipline and they will be at the ready when I have need of them.”
“And what will my training entail?” Aidan asked, not sure he really wanted to know. He was opening himself up to a world of hurt with Marcus, but if it kept the others safe and Marcus distracted from Allie, then it was worth whatever time he could buy her.
“I will push your limits to the edge and you will pursue every shred of potential you possess. This will not be easy.”
“I wouldn’t expect otherwise.” Aidan swallowed back the last of his fears. The deal was all but done.
“Don’t think for a moment that I don’t realize you’re soft, McBrien. You’ve presented a good front. Arrogant, ambitious and confident in the extreme. But you’ve also willingly sacrificed yourself for the comfort of others.” Marcus sneered, showing Aidan just what he thought of that.
“I trade myself to give my Syntrophos a better life, ensuring their undying loyalty in the process. In exchange, I get the kind of training someone of my stature truly deserves from someone who knows where I am going. It’s a win-win for me.” Aidan tried to convey his lack of sympathy for his students through his stony expression and flat tone. “Do we have a deal?” Aidan asked, confident that as long as Marcus believed Aidan was the child of prophecy, he wouldn’t let him walk out of this room without a deal.
“For now, Mr. McBrien, we have a deal. We leave in an hour.”
“You played me.” Rowan pushed off the wall when Aidan stepped through the doors into the colonnade. “You wanted to bring him here.”
“Come with me.” Aidan charged down the open stone corridor and through the archway onto the dark training field.
“I’m such an idiot.” Rowan shook her head. “You wanted to usurp my position here and you played me.”
“You’re still in charge here, Rowan. And you’re not going to have to torture anyone. For a while at least.”
“What did you do?” She lowered her voice and glanced back over her shoulder.
“I traded myself to make it easier on everyone here.”
“You’re going with him, aren’t you?” She gave him an incredulous look.
“Yes.”
“You have no idea what he’s capable of.” Her eyes filled with worry. Worry for him. Underneath her hard exterior, Rowan was probably a decent human being. He just wondered how much he could trust her. Before this was over, he was going to need her on his side.
“I know I’m probably going to regret it but I have other people to think about.”
“You really think you can save everyone, don’t you?” She shook her head in disgust. “He’s going to see right through you.”
“I don’t have much time so I’m going to ask you one thing and then I’m going to leave you and Naomi to take care of everyone while I’m gone. I don’t know if I can trust you, but I don’t have much of a choice, so here goes nothing. If I can get you the impossible—if I can get you in the same room with your Syntrophos and your Complement—if I can give you freedom, where would your loyalties lie? With Marcus? Or with me? You don’t even have to answer now. Just think about it.”
“I don’t have to think about it, McBrien.” She looked over her shoulder again. “You make that happen and I’m on team Aidan.”
Chapter Thirty
Allie
Cleveland, June
Someone close to you will betray you. Navid’s warning from years ago rang out in Allie’s mind. She’d thought it was Livia. When her sister confessed her part in their mother’s death, it broke Allie’s heart. The betrayal of Livia’s confession had shattered whatever fragile bond they were building. That bond was only just now growing again. But all this time, it was Greyson—her rock during the difficult time of the last two years. Her friend. Her refuge. How had she not seen it?
“I’m so sorry, Allie.” He couldn’t even look at her.
“Sorry?” She hissed as angry tears blurred her vision. She wanted to lash out at him, but the magnetic collar severed Allie’s connection with her power. “I trusted you!” A stab of despair shot through her. “You were like family to me, Greyson. Why?” she demanded. She deserved that much.
Another Immortal presence brought Allie out of her shock. A once beautiful woman sat immobile on a picnic bench. “Isebeau?” Allie stared at the woman. “You traded me? To free your wife?” Her voice sounded like gravel in her throat.
“I can’t do this.” Greyson turned to the three men in desperation. “She’s just a kid.” He tried to cross the lawn between them, but the Coalition agents stood in his way. He might feel remorse for his betrayal, but it was done. These agents wouldn’t let him go back on his deal now.
“And an Immortal with unspeakable powers if you’ve been telling the truth,” one of the agents said.
“I thought he was lying,” another said, shaking his head. “The Margrave will want her. They’ll put her gift to good use.”
“No, Greyson, how could you?” Isebeau cried, shaking her head. “Not like this. He wouldn’t do
such a heinous thing.” Her frail shoulders trembled and her wide eyes seemed not to trust what she saw.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t live without you anymore,” Greyson’s voice broke on a sob.
“You wouldn’t sentence a child to a life like mine.” Isebeau’s cold voice was garbled and harsh, like she hadn’t used it in an age. “My husband wouldn’t do such a dishonorable thing.”
Allie searched the walled garden, desperate for a way out of this mess.
“Get the girl,” one of the agents barked. “You have what you bargained for.” He cast a disgusted sneer at Isebeau. “Worthless pile of nothing that she is.”
Greyson charged the agents, putting himself between them and Allie. “She will understand everything before you take her or we have no deal.”
“The deal is done. Make your point and do it quickly.” The man waved his gun in Greyson’s face. “Or we’ll just take all of you.”
Greyson whirled around to face Allie. “I’ve fought this for years,” Greyson said, a note of desperation in his voice, like he could possibly offer an acceptable excuse for his betrayal. “Since the day I met you, I knew this was coming. I knew I wouldn’t be strong enough to resist this when you were right there—the key to bringing my Isebeau back.”
Allie managed to get to her feet, rage burning inside her. “And it took you three years to find the balls to do it?” She took an unsteady step toward him, desperate to get her hands around his throat. “Of course, you knew everything.” Allie’s eyes filled with tears. Greyson’s gift told him exactly what she could do from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. He knew before she did that she would have the power to strip Immortals of their immortality. He knew all her secrets and he’d traded on them. All this time, she’d believed only a select few knew of her gift. She’d forgotten all about Greyson. But Gregg would have realized.
“Gregg swore you to secrecy, didn’t he?” she said, connecting all the missing pieces. “He trusted you with my life and you betrayed that trust.”
“I can’t expect you to understand.” Greyson hung his head in shame.
“You were my friend.” Allie tried to find the strength to fight for her life, but her limbs wouldn’t work. She’d experienced the effects of a magnetic collar before, and she knew it was futile to resist the influence of the cold, harsh metal. “I would have helped you get your wife back. I offered to help.” Allie would have been on board with the plan to use her as bait to lure these Coalition assholes here with Isebeau. It could have been so easy to dupe them and get her back without all the lies and betrayal.
“I … I let myself think this was the way you could help. I really thought you’d see it coming. That we could get through this together and free Isebeau in the process.”
“Enough,” the lead agent said. “We’re leaving with the girl.” He gestured for his two subordinates to subdue Allie, but she wasn’t about to let them touch her. She took a step back and something about her must have scared the agents because they gaped at her with terror filled eyes.
“She’s weak and cut off from her power, she can’t touch you,” the one in charge reminded them.
“It doesn’t look like she’s cut off. Not completely.” The second agent took a step away from Allie, his hands shaking as he pointed a magnetized knife at her. “You sure that collar is strong enough to hold her?”
That’s when she saw it. The collar around her throat glowed hot with the light of her power. It was doing its job, but Allie wondered if her will was strong enough to overcome the magnetic influence of the collar. Whatever it meant, it was clear these agents had never seen the like before.
“You think I can’t take you with that silly little thing?” Allie sneered at the agent with the knife, showing off her tattooed battle scars from the last time she faced a magnetized weapon. “Go ahead, come at me, bro.” Allie crouched in a defensive pose. She was so full of shit right now, but she was counting on the weird glow of her collar and her false bravado to get her out of this mess. But Allie barely had the strength to remain on her feet.
“Enough with the drama,” the lead agent said again. “The deal is done and we’re leaving. Greyson, enjoy that bag of bones you call a wife. She was a tough one to find. Buried in the bowels of an old prison and long forgotten. I’m sure she’s bat shit crazy by now.”
Isebeau still sat at the picnic table with her head down, weeping into her arms. She didn’t seem to have the strength to hold her head up.
The agents managed to get over their fear of Allie as they advanced on her together.
“No.” She lashed out at them, but they had her arms bound with heavy zip ties behind her back before she could protest further. She desperately searched for a way out of this and saw none. “Greyson, don’t let them do this!” She cried, her voice shaking with fury. “Help me, goddammit!”
“I’m sorry, Allie.” Tears of humiliation tracked down his face as he turned away from her to go to his wife’s side.
“You bastard!” She kicked and struggled between the two agents, grasping onto the rush of adrenaline for whatever strength she had remaining.
“Release her.” Liam and Gregg came charging around to the backyard with Livia leading the way. Darius and Naeemah burst through the back door with Vince and Kayla right behind them. Each Immortal trained their weapons on the mortal Coalition agents and Greyson with his weeping wife.
“You son of a bitch!” Naeemah punched Greyson so hard he dropped like a dead weight.
“You don’t think we’ve prepared for this?” The Coalition man laughed. “You Immortals are powerful and gifted, but you’re also predictable creatures of habit. We have backup.”
“You mean that vanload of Coalition waiting in the driveway?” Vince asked. “Yeah, they’re all passed out. Seems they got a little dose of carbon monoxide poisoning. Not enough to kill them, but they won’t be waking up any time soon.” The short length of garden hose in his hand and the running van out front explained everything. Allie was never so happy to see her ex-boyfriend and his girlfriend as she was in that moment. How do they always know when I need them? She couldn’t fathom what brought them here to save her ass, but she was grateful. Vince knew more about her world than any of her Immortal friends realized and he’d just blown his cover tonight.
“Your grandfather will hear about this, young man,” the lead agent said as he stumbled to the ground, his hands bound by the force of Gregg’s electromagnetic gift.
“The old man’s not my biggest fan anyway.” Vince shrugged. “Lucky for me your son is a loud mouthed idiot. He told me about your “career making” raid tonight so here I am, Uncle Will.” Vince crouched beside the furious man. “Making sure that doesn’t happen.”
“You’re just like your father. Always on the wrong side of the fight,” Will said. “Always consorting with the wrong people.” He shot a hateful glare at Kayla.
“We can choose for ourselves who and what we fight for,” Kayla said, her voice strong and confident.
“And my money’s always going to be on the redhead,” Vince added.
“Darius! Get this collar off me,” Allie sobbed once Gregg had all three agents restrained.
“I swear, Allie, you’re going to be the death of me.” Darius came toward her with the magnetic release for the collar he’d pilfered from Will’s pocket. It fell away with a thud against the ground as Liam cut the zip ties binding her hands behind her back.
Allie threw her arms around her Syntrophos, the warm tendrils of their bond entwined, humming with satisfaction. “Never again, Allie.” Darius cupped her face between his palms. “I don’t care what’s at stake, if you need to enter the dreamworld, you have to wait for me to protect you while you’re gone.”
Allie nodded, sniffing back her tears.
“I’m the only one we trust with your life, got it?” Darius hugged her tight.
“Got it.” Allie stood on shaky legs, turning to search for her sister. “Livia.” She rubbed her chaf
ed wrists, crossing the lawn to Livia’s side. “Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around her sister. “You saved my life. How did you know?”
“I knew someone was going to betray you. Navid prepared me for it months ago. When you disappeared from the dreamworld at the worst possible moment, I knew something was wrong, and you weren’t protected.”
“And Navid?”
“Is home.” Her face lit up with a beautiful smile. “I found him near the lake. He seems to have had enough sense not to wander too far from the tower entrance. I think he’s been traveling in circles around that lake for months, just waiting for us to come get him.”
“I hate to break up the reunion, but we need to get out of here before the other assholes wake up,” Vince said. “We’re the most fragile ones here, so we’re going to go lay low somewhere until this blows over.” He took his girlfriend’s hand.
“Wait.” Allie walked toward them. “How can I thank you?”
“Take care of that niece of yours.” Vince whispered. “And it wouldn’t hurt if these guys could forget about us, if you know what I mean.”
“Consider it done.” Allie would have to convince Daniel to work his memory mojo on all those who’d witnessed Vince’s assistance tonight, but she was certain he would do whatever he could to protect Vince and Kayla for proving their loyalty to Allie tonight. “Thank you. Both of you.” Allie took each of their hands in hers. “You risked too much coming here. You’re like my freaking guardian angels.”
“Time to go, little one,” Liam said. “We’ll talk about this situation you’ve managed to get your self into later.” He eyed Vince and Kayla with suspicion.
“Sure, Liam.” Hopefully Daniel could work his memory magic before Liam wanted to have that conversation.
“Come on, Allie.” Livia draped her arm around her sister. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Emerge- The Betrayal Page 30
