by CY Jones
“Do I need to remind you that he’s the reason why you and your lot is still alive? Why Remy is still alive?” I chastise.
“And do I need to remind you, he’s the reason why she was put in danger in the first place? If you’re asking for remorse out of me then you’ll be highly disappointed,” he counters.
Sighing, I don’t argue. Hunter is filled with too much arsehole to listen to reason, especially when it comes to Remy. Instead I turn to his more level headed mate.
"Were you able to acquire what I asked for?” I ask Cody.
“Yes,” he answers, pulling a tiny baggie from his pocket. Inside is a tracking device no bigger than a rice grain. It’s undetectable, and strong enough to withstand the bodies stomach acid when swallowed and digested.
“Are you sure about this, mate?" He questions.
In answer, I swallow the tracking device. I’m so sick of answering this question. We’ve already had this argument when I told them my plan. The only person who’s on board is Hunter, and not because he wants to see me dead.
One Day Ago
Rowen
I knew no one was going to be onboard with my plan, but I didn’t expect all this. My dads are at each throats, yelling at one another while Cody and Hunter try to keep them from killing one another. Caleb understands my position. He knows there are no more moves left to make. Conner on the other hand, would rather cut his own hand off then send me back into the lion’s den. I tried my best to explain that I still have the threat of the thumb drive to hold over O’Donnell’s head, and it will be suicide to kill me, but no one wants to acknowledge that. All they see is the trouble I have made for O’Donnell so far, using the information Gabriel has fed me, and how much O’Donnell wants me dead. Having heard enough, I leave them to their arguing as I storm out of the room.
“Phantom, hold up,” Hunter says jogging to catch up to me.
“What is it?” I ask, raising my brow. I’ve never had a conversation with Hunter without the others around. We’re both stubborn people, and neither one of us has quite forgiven the other when Remy first went missing.
“Look, I know we can’t say we’re friends, more like casual companions,” he says voicing my thoughts. “But even I do not wish to see you dead.”
Holding my hand up, I’m about to interrupt whatever speech he’s about to give me about not going through with my plans, but he stops me.
“Let me finish,” he grumbles, and I drop my hand, and nod for him to continue.
“I’m not here to change your mind. If the roles were reversed, I know there is nothing anyone can say to change my mind, and you are more like me than I care to admit,” he chuckles.
“Then why are you here?” I question.
“To tell you to be careful, and for your sister’s sake, to make it back. You are the only thing keeping her whole. The pebble that keeps her from tipping completely over, and if you were to die, nothing or no one will be able to stop her from unleashing hell on this world. From losing her soul completely. Not even love will keep her here.”
“Don’t count yours or the others love short. My demise will not kill my sister. You giving up on her will,” I tell him.
“I will never give up on her. No matter what she does.”
“Good. You’re a good man. We might have had our differences, but I know you love my sister, and that’s all I care about.”
“You’re talking like you’re not coming back,” he says.
“Nothing is certain. Not even death,” I answer, walking away.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Conner says bringing me back to the present.
"I’m not changing my mind dad. Tomorrow at dawn we will do the exchange and that’s it. Either support me or don’t come at all, but either way this is what I’m doing. I’m not changing my mind no matter how many times you ask.”
No one speaks. The room has gone silent as they contemplate what I just said. They can see it in my eyes that I will not waver.
“Fine, since we can’t change your mind, or make you listen to reason, let's run through the plan again. I don’t want any surprises like the last time, and I want contingencies A-Z put in place,” Conner relents, throwing himself into the leadership role, so he can avoid thinking about the consequences if anything goes wrong.
The plan is a simple exchange. Remy, Silas, and Maddie for myself. The tracking device I swallowed will allow the others to keep tabs on me the whole time, so they can try to break me out once they have Remy in a safe and secured area. Not like she will stay put. Once she learns what I’ve done, she will move Heaven and Earth to get me back. This plan comes with a high risk. O’Donnell can kill me before they’re able to arrange a party to break me free. I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. Right now we’re banking on O’Donnell being too scared to kill me with the threat of the thumb drive hanging over his head. A thumb drive with enough information on it to ruin O’Donnell, and can only be activated with mine or Remy’s death. It’s basically the only bargaining chip we have with the madman.
“What about Atlas? Should we tell him of our plans?” Conner asks.
“Fuck no. That asshole just left her there,” Hunter grumbles.
“I agree with Hunter. I don’t care if his reasons were noble. He still left Remy there, so we don’t need to inform him of our plans. It’s not like he’s informed any of us of his before taking off,” Caleb says.
“I think you’re making a hasty decision, brother. We all need to work together,” Conner rationalizes.
“Fuck being rational Con. We don’t even know why he left her. He could have explained, but he didn’t, and now everything has blown up in our faces, and we have to send our son back into the enemy territory. Let the vamp conduct his business as we will do ours. We will inform DelaCorte, and the higher up supes so they can be on standby, but that’s it. If Atlas wants to know of our plans, or the mess he’s left behind, he can ask himself,” Caleb explains.
“I agree with Caleb and Hunter. We have no reason to tell him anything,” Oreo comments walking into the room, and I gaze up at the love of my life, taking him in.
He’s showered and changed his clothes. His eyes are a lot clearer, and he seems to be in better spirits than when I left him. Walking over to me he takes a seat beside me, and to my surprise, kisses me soundly in front of everyone. Beside the casual hand holding, we don’t show a lot of PDA around the others.
“None of that,” Cody gags. "You can do that shite when you get Remy back,” he adds smiling from ear to ear.
Taking my hand in his, Oreo holds on to it for dear life. We only have a couple hours together before I put my crazy plan in action.
Remy
My head is killing me, and my throat is so damn dry. My body feels like I’ve been run over by a truck which backed up, and ran me over again.
“Are you ok?” Silas asks, sounding like he just smoked a whole pack of cigarettes.”
"Where are we?” I question as my mind slowly starts to piece together the events that brought us here.
We’re both locked in a dirty dark cell with only a dingy mattress and rats to keep us company. Across from us is another cell. With the crappy lightning I can barely make out another dark figure lying on their own mattress with their back to us.
“They must have moved us to another location when we were knocked out. Where, I have no clue. If I have to guess I will have to say we’re in someone’s basement in one of the less desirable neighborhoods O’Donnell does business in. Places where people don’t care to ask questions about bodies being moved in and out.”
A flash of silver catches my eye, and I glance down noticing the cuffs secured to my wrist.
“Yeah, they were nice enough to leave these on us. Fashionable aren’t they?” Silas gripes.
“It makes sense. It’s not like they’ll leave us locked up here with the use of our powers,” I reply being rational. “Who is that?” I ask, squinting over at the lumpy figure across from us.
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“If I had to guess, I would say it's Hatter,” Silas answers, and my heart beat picks up. Through all of this, I had no clue what happened to him. I only knew he was alive since we all were, but with O’Donnell there’s no limit to the fucked up shite he could have done to him. He could have been stashed away and been tortured like Gabriel.
“Maddie,” I yell as loud as I can with my hoarse voice. “Maddie,” I try again when I don’t get an answer. “What’s wrong with him?" I ask panicking.
“I don’t know, sweetheart. I woke up a couple minutes before you, and he was already here.”
Throwing myself on the bars, I try rattling them, no matter how pointless it is. Without my supernatural strength the bars barely budge.
“Maddie,” I scream again as tears start to run down my cheeks.
Coming to my side, Silas holds me as close as he can without the cuffs interfering.
“Shhh, love. He could have been given a higher dose of poison than us, or maybe he was put down after. You’re alive. I’m alive, so he has to be too,” Silas says trying to comfort me, and I cry into his shoulder until a faint groaning sound has me snapping my attention to the cell across from us.
“Fuck,” Maddie grumbles, and it’s the most magnificent sound I have ever heard.
“Maddie,” I whisper, and he snaps his head up.
“Little bird, are you ok?”
“Fuck, Maddie, I thought you were dead,” I cry out relieved that he’s ok.
“That’s a terrible assumption when you’re living and breathing,” Maddie chuckles.
“It’s not funny, arsehole. You scared the shite out of me,” I gripe.
“Aww, little bird. I’m sorry,” he says, rubbing his head. I can see the flash of metal from here, and I know he’s cuffed too.
“What happened?” I ask once my heart rate slows itself to normal.
Normally I’m not this hysterical, and would have rationalized the situation better. I hate to think about what has really set me on edge. Like the hormones from a seed that’s barely bigger than a pea, but there's no telling the rate this baby will grow with the serum Blake gave me mixed with my supernatural blood.
They took me back to my room when you left the dinner table. A couple hours later, O’Donnell sent his hired goons to retrieve me, and cuff me with these power sapping sackels. Once we were in the car they stuck me with a needle, and I woke up here, wherever the fuck here is. Care to explain why we’re here, little bird?”
“I attacked O’Donnell,” I answer softly.
“Attacked how? You don’t have any powers. Did you go Bruce Lee on him again?” he chuckles.
“It’s not funny Maddie. O’Donnell, he killed Silas’s mum,” I say, looking over at my broody mage.
He doesn’t meet my gaze, probably running the events in his head. The way he held his mother close to him as she bled out and died in his arms.
“O’Donnell wanted to teach us a lesson for defying him and going behind his back and conspiring with Gabriel, so he pulled a gun out on Silas’s mum, and I acted on instinct. I felt it when whatever hold the nullify band had on me broke, and I went bat shit crazy, burning everything in sight trying to save Silas’s mum.”
“What happened next, little bird?”
“It wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough. I fought them, but I was too slow. She still died, and all I accomplished was injuring Red, while my monster for a father is still breathing.”
“You can’t put that on yourself, Remy. You tried. Hell you beat the shite out of Alice, Red, Hangman, and still managed to injure O'Donnell. You did more than me,” Silas says, snapping out of his reviere.
“You were in shock. Your fucking mother was bleeding out in your arms. If I was in your position, I probably would have done the same," I tell him.
“It doesn’t matter. We're together now,” Maddie says.
“Yeah, but for how long?” I question.
We’re literally and figurally trapped like rats. O’Donnell has the upperhand. Why move us? If all this is a show of power then it’s wasted on us. We’re well aware of who’s running the show. All our previous plans have been wiped out. Gabe is dead, whatever help my brother was providing has blown up on all of us, Maddie no longer has access to the wolfsbane, so we might as well say goodbye to that plan. With all three of our powers subdued we won’t be able to fight our way out of here. Atlas isn’t an option either. O’Donnell good and said so in his office, so why keep us alive?
“Oh God Silas, Nat. What will come of her?” I question.
“O'Donnell has probable given her over to Marissa by now to become one of her Blackwidows. He’s already been having her shadow her, so it won’t be long before he’ll put her to work.”
“I’m so sorry, Silas. This is all my fault. If you had never met me then your family would have never been put in danger. You will still have a mother and sister.”
“If I never met you then I would have never felt what true happiness is. I would have turned into the monster O’Donnell was grooming me to be. Do you think O’Donnell wasn’t always looking for the right excuse to ship Natalie off? Shadowing Marissa was just temporary. He always planned to give her over to her. He’s already been poisoning my mother’s mind. Making her into the empty shell you saw. Killing her is more merciful than leaving her in his hands,” he chokes out. “We were never safe, and I was a fool to think so.”
“This isn’t the time to lose our head, little bird. We’re going to need our wits if we plan to survive this,” Maddie says rationally, and I snap myself out of whatever stupor I was falling into.
“You’re right. You’re both right. So what’s the plan? How do we get out of all this?” I question.
“For now there's nothing we can do, but stay put. We’ll wait for our chance, and when it comes, we will strike,” Silas says. His eyes are filled with rage, and I know once unleashed there's nothing that will stop him from lighting this world on fire to get to O’Donnell, and I will be right by his side.
“Fine, we’ll wait,” I say taking a seat on the dingy mattress. I need to conserve my energy. I will not freak out. I am not broken, I repeat my mantra in my head, until vengeance is all I see.
Twenty-Seven
Final Offer
Remy
I don’t know how long we were left in that dingy dark cell, or how long we were out beforehand. I’m pretty sure at least twenty four hours has gone by, but it’s hard to say for sure with no natural light streaming through the basement. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to break through the nullify cuffs. I don’t think they’re as strong as the metal band that was once on my wrist, but they still serve its purpose and has a tight hold on all our powers. It makes me wonder where in the hell O’Donnell is getting this shite from? How he got his hands on an angel? Alice said he saved her, but I don’t truly believe that. I believe the same person who’s been providing him with these pain in the arse magical items is the same person to give Alice over to him. How fucked up was her life before to see O’Donnell as some kind of savior?
“Penny for your thoughts, little bird? I can feel your gears turning from here,” Maddie questions as he’s perched upside down against the wall in a handstand. Why he’s doing this? I have no clue. You will think he had enough of his blood rushing to his head, but it’s this kind of special brand of crazy that I love about him, and hanging around upside down like a giant bat is so Maddie.
“Do you even have a penny?” I ask.
“Do you take IOUs? I assure you I’m good for it, or as soon as I’m free, I can offer you another form of payment,” he offers suggestively.
“Tempting,” I murmur, pretending to think it over until I glance over at Silas, and sigh heavily. I’m starting to get worried about him. He hasn’t moved from his seat on the mattress in hours, and just stares emptyidly at the dirty brick walls.
“I’ve been pondering where O’Donnell been getting these magical items. And how the fuck did he get his hands on the ang
el Alice? Did you know that’s what she is? I thought like you, they’re super rare.”
Pulling himself right side up, he starts to rub his chin. “No, I did not know, but I did have my suspicions.”
“It’s so crazy O’Donnell is more involved in supernaturals than myself, and he’s a human.”
“A lot of humans know about us. Powerful ones who plot and use their armies to eradicate our kind. That has always been man's first response. To kill what they don’t understand and can’t control. O’Donnell is no different. Ever since he’s found out about our kind from your fathers, he’s been hoarding us in his own personal collection, and casting off those who he cannot control.”
“Are you saying this is my father's fault?” I question, raising my brow.
“No, little bird. This is no one’s fault. It was inevitable when O'Donnell first learned about our kind. He’s a greedy, sick man. He wanted what he could not have, so he sought out a way to claim your mother. He’s taken that knowledge, twisted it to his own needs, and here we are. It’s not hard to believe he’s been able to obtain knowledge on our weaknesses through his journey.”
Maddie may have a mad way of explaining things, but he’s always right. It’s logical to assume that once O’Donnell learned about the existence of supernaturals, he would also seek out a way to destroy them. To destroy my fathers. Knowledge is power, and O’Donnell is a very powerful man.
I’m about to speak again when Hangman enters carrying a tray of food.
“Back up against the walls,” he orders.
Doing as he says we all move back, and he pulls a large old fashioned key from his pocket and proceeds to open Maddie’s cell. Sliding the plate in, he quickly closes the cell door, and repeats the process with mine and Silas’s cell.
“Eat up. It might be your last meal,” Hangman's says, and I glare at the man.
“You’re an arsehole. I hope you know that,” I grumble.