Drake’s voice was persuasive, “I’ll make sure she knows of your sacrifice for all Centaurs. No one will forget your legacy.”
Zandra’s hand reached high into the air as she touched his cheek, “Camille is my legacy. She saw the truth when all the rest of us refused to question our history. I regret that I’ll not tell her myself. If you can get to your feet – go.”
Drake struggled to his feet and limped over to the metal bars that held them prisoner. He grabbed hold of a bar and shoved – nothing happened. The bars were tall and thick and were buried deep in the rock below. There was no ceiling, nor any bracing bar holding it from the top. The bars were positioned closely enough that even Zandra’s tiny frame could not squeeze between them.
I watched as every muscle on Drake’s upper body bulged and struggled to bend the bar. He threw his weight into the bar, shoving with everything he had as his hooves slid on the rocky soil.
He didn’t relent. His arms were fully extended. I watched the tendons in his neck stretch in complaint. The bar bent marginally. He took a step back, looked up and down the row of poles, and then went back to the bar he had been pushing. Zandra had been off to his side, but she, too, stood concentrating on the bar. After several more seconds an ear-splitting “crack” sounded as the pole refused to bend, but the metal broke under their combined force.
Zandra collapsed to the ground but shouted, “Change back to your human form and go. Tell Camille the drawer. . ."
Lightning rained in a second time, cutting her off in mid sentence. Hailstones the size of softballs fell from the cloudless sky above them. Drake threw himself over her as I watched Quinton seek cover under the only tree that remained standing in their cage. Judging time through Quinton’s memory was difficult, but the hailstones and lightning strikes seemed to last for hours. Darkness fell over the mountain top before the assault stopped.
Quinton made his way over to Drake. He looked dead as he lay motionless on the ground. Large hailstones lay all around him. I couldn’t tell where all the blood had come from, but it pooled in the dirt beneath him as gaping wounds leaked from all over his body. Quinton found Zandra tucked under Drake without a scratch on her.
She looked at the hole they had made in the fence, then back at Drake’s lifeless body. “Quinton, go. He won’t be able to heal in time to travel with you. I don’t know when Zeus’s wrath will return.”
“Come with me,” Quinton was tugging on her arm.
She shook her head, “No. Warn the Council. Tell them everything you saw. Tell them Camille is my choice. Go now.”
As Quinton gave her one final look, he turned toward the opening in the fence. I saw him focus on Drake’s eyes. They were watching him. He was still alive. Drake was mouthing something Quinton couldn’t hear. Quinton leaned his ear down to Drake’s mouth as his words gave me the shivers. “Tell Cami I’ll be waiting in the pasture.” Drake coughed as blood splattered from his mouth onto his hand. “Tell her I want her to have a long life. She’s the Chiron. She owes. . . “ Drake coughed again as his eyes rolled back in his head.
Everything went black. I was in a sea of nothingness without a compass. My arms flailed out to my sides as the room came back into focus. I had been gripping Quinton’s shoulders, but as I looked at his body in the hotel room, I didn’t need to feel for a pulse to see he was dead. He had stayed alive long enough to deliver Drake’s message.
I fell to my knees as strong hands tried to pick me up from the floor. I resisted. Jessica waved off whoever had tried to lift me from the floor as she placed her hands over my shoulder. “I saw everything, Cami.”
Chapter 15
(Camille Nash – Lost City Resort, South Africa)
My first inclination was to fold in on myself, just as I had done for the last week. A voice inside my head wouldn’t let me. Drake could still be alive. There was still a chance that I could save him. I could levitate him out of the enclosure if need be. I could snap the bars the way that Zandra had. I overrode my desire to shut down again and bounded to my feet.
Daniel, Brent and Katherine had no idea what I’d just seen, but Jessica had seen everything. She grabbed both my shoulders, “You need to notify the Centaur Council. Zandra has chosen you as the next Chairman. The families need to be assembled.”
Brent’s eyes flexed. “Seriously? That’s great!”
I shook my head, “No. Not now. They could both still be alive.” Jessica looked at the other three sets of eyes in the room who had no idea what we were talking about. She told Brent, “Get your father. Zandra wants Camille to take over now. Camille needs to talk to the heads of all the families. Tell him he’d better figure who the Head of the Tak line is, because Zandra just told Zeus you were all being welcomed home.”
Katherine shook her head, not understanding what Quinton had shared. Jessica was the only one in the room who had been able to listen in on Quinton’s thoughts. Katherine asked, “What happened, Cami?”
I couldn’t waste the time, and I wasn’t sure I could repeat what I’d just seen. I grabbed Jessica’s arm, “Tell Will. I’ve got to go.” I bolted through the door, jammed my keycard into my own door and ran into my room. Someone followed, but I paid them no attention. My backpack lay beside the bed. I grabbed a couple shirts and a sweatshirt to stuff into the backpack. I threw on a pair of jeans and my favorite Converse sneakers. I grabbed a few essentials out of the bathroom, stuffing them into the backpack and was headed for the door again when Daniel’s voice stopped me.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll know when I get there.”
He stood directly in front of me and put a hand on my forearm. “Cami, did you hear Jessica? She says you’re the new Grand Poo-bah. Your family’s going to be fine. Why are you running around here like a crazy woman?”
“I have to go.”
Daniel’s hand caught my arm as he anchored me before I could reach my door. “Stop! Where are you going?”
“Drake’s hurt. I need to get to him. He needs me.”
A surprised look stared back at me. “That’s what the enforcer told you?”
“That’s what he showed me.”
“Drake told the enforcer he needs your help?”
I couldn’t lie to Daniel. Even if I could, Jessica would tell him the truth. “Drake’s hurt. Somewhere. I’m not sure where, but I have to find him.”
“How? You said you hadn’t heard from him in a week.”
How did I know I could find him? Our connection wouldn’t work unless I was close enough to feel him. He wasn’t dead. If he were, it would be like when Mom died. He would have already come to me. He was alive. I just had to get close enough to feel the connection. “Will’s plane. I’ll have the pilot fly over every country in the world until I can feel him.”
Daniel shook his head, “Do you know how long that’ll take?”
“I don’t care! Drake needs me.” I pulled my arm out of his grasp and shoved Daniel out of the way as I ran for the door.
“Hey! Stop!” Daniel caught up to me a second time. “I get it. I’m not trying to talk you out of going to him. You may not believe it, but in a weird way I sorta like the guy. I’m just asking is there a quicker way to find him? That enforcer was beat to hell. If Drake’s in the same boat, we’re going to need to find him quick.”
My eyes were burning. I threw my arms around Daniel. This was why he’d been my best friend my whole life. He wouldn’t let me do this alone. He was right. I stopped for a minute trying to focus, then it hit me, “Gretchen. She’ll know what to do.”
“Not your Dad?”
I shook my head and felt my own smile. “Haven’t you learned anything yet? Will will do whatever Gretchen tells him. The Centaurides call the shots around here.”
Daniel’s worried expression morphed into a smile, “Oh yeah, you were born for this job.”
I flung open the door with Daniel on my heels. Brent, Katherine and Jessica were standing in the hall looking lost, not
knowing what to do next. I didn’t tell them to stay or to follow, but they fell in step behind Daniel and me.
Gretchen was waiting for me with her door propped open. “Jessica has already shared with me what has happened. I know what you’re about to ask me, and I have a counter proposal for you.”
My heart sunk. Would I ever get used to everyone being telepaths? If I lived to be a hundred, I doubted it! Her voice resonated in my head, “Hannah, Lacey, and I will find them. We will bring them back to Centurion. You will stay with Will and summon the other families. Share with them what has transpired and set a plan in motion to protect the herds from any gods who may be sent to seek vengeance.”
I shook my head. I would be the one who could find Drake at the greatest distance. “No. It’ll take days to assemble all the families. Drake doesn’t have days. I can take care of that when I get back.”
“No. You cannot. Zandra named you as her successor. The ceremony must be carried out immediately.”
I gave Gretchen my best glare. “You think I care about being the Chairman? Drake is somewhere bleeding to death, being attacked by hail and lightning and who knows what else? Not a chance. I take care of Drake. When I get back, I’ll do whatever needs to be done with the Council.”
I needed to know the fastest way to pinpoint his location. Brent, Daniel, Jessica and Katherine kept looking between Gretchen and me. They must have assumed we were communicating, because not one of them uttered a word. I looked back at Gretchen, pleased that when we spoke telepathically, the panic I was feeling didn’t come through the way it might have in my voice. “I haven’t had any contact with him since the night they left. You once told me that we would only be able to communicate about a hundred miles. How can I use my connection to find him?”
Gretchen tapped her finger to her chin as if contemplating my question. “Your idea of flying over the world to locate him will work; if we concentrated on the most likely countries – that could narrow the search down substantially.”
Finally, something I could work with. “What are the most likely countries?”
Gretchen spoke aloud for the first time, “For that, we need to go to the airport and check the flight plan on file for Zandra’s plane.”
I patted my backpack, “Let’s go.”
Gretchen shook her head, “We will take care of that. You need to stay here and make preparations for the Council.”
My eyes darted to the floor, “I don’t care about any of that right now.”
In a gentle voice, she answered, “I know you don’t, but you have to. Earthquakes have left California in rubble. A tsunami hit South America. There are three hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. Whales are beaching themselves all over the world. Every religious fanatic who can get on a television screen is screaming it’s the end of days. Your priority has to be the herds – they are your responsibility now.” She placed a reassuring hand on my forearm, “Let us worry about Drake.”
“What?” I hadn’t watched any news or talked to anyone until just today. I hadn’t heard about any of the natural disasters or whales, or anything.
Gretchen clarified, “Zeus is convinced he was betrayed by another god, so he’s searching high and low for anyone who protected the Lost Herd, who helped King Sisyphus, who has even looked at him sideways in the last millennia. Zandra kicked a hornet’s nest.”
I didn’t want to concern myself with the rest of the world. The world wasn’t my responsibility. The man who had pledged his life to me was. I asked Gretchen, “You know what Zeus has done to Zandra and Drake?”
“I didn’t know the extent until Jessica shared Quinton’s memory with me.” Her look was soft as she brought a gentle hand to my cheek. “That’s the thing. When Zeus finishes his investigation,” Gretchen did air quotes around the word investigation, “and comes up empty, he will turn his anger on all the Centaurs in the world.”
My stomach dropped as goose bumps erupted on my arms. “You’re not serious?”
“I am. Zandra told him she intended to disregard his orders. It was her choice as the Chairman, and she decided no more harm would come to any of the Lost Herd. She said she would not honor his decree. No more Centaur blood would spill over something one of his gods was responsible for.”
Brent’s voice was low, but carried throughout the room. “She’s tougher than any of us gave her credit for. For her to say that to Zeus, she must have been on a suicide mission.”
Had she done this for Cameron and me? She stood up to Zeus; I had seen it in Quinton’s memory myself. It had taken most of her life, but she was finally the true leader of the Centaur. The herds needed her and I needed Drake. “What are we waiting for? We can’t let Zeus kill her!”
Gretchen stood tall, her voice full of pride. “She has named you as her successor. You need to stay here. If anything were to happen to you, her stand against Zeus would be for nothing. She is still alive, but if she dies, don’t let her final act of courage be in vain. It is your responsibility to lead the herds.”
I could see her reasoning, but the unreasonable part of my brain refused to agree. It was selfish on my part, but I wouldn’t be good for anything if I lost Drake. I had already known that feeling and remembered all too well what it did to me. I would live with a giant gaping hole in my soul if he went to the pasture now. I needed him.
“Where’s Cameron?”
Gretchen looked confused. “Cameron?”
“My brother. Where is he?”
Gretchen shook her head. “I don’t know. No one has seen him since the day of the Council meeting.”
I looked at Jessica. “You knew him in South Dakota, right?”
She shook her head. “Sort of. We weren’t friends or anything, but we went to the same high school. He didn’t know he was a Centaur, so he never paid any attention to me. I’m not sure he would even recognize me.”
“I don’t care how you do it. Find him. Tell him everything that’s happened. If I don’t come back, he’s my successor.”
Daniel jerked to his feet, “Whoa! What do you mean if you don’t come back?”
“I’m going after Drake and Zandra.”
Will stepped through the door just as I spoke. His voice was stern, “I’d like a word with my daughter. Would you all give us a minute?” Everyone sheepishly walked out the door except Gretchen. His voice didn’t change as he looked at his wife, “Alone, please.”
I still wasn’t great with the Centaur dynamics. It was clear Gretchen was in charge, but she gave a slight bow of her head and joined the others. No one, not even Will, was going to talk me out of this. My words blasted quickly, “He’s my husband, Will. And as much as I hate her, next to Cameron, she’s the closest thing I have left of Mom. I’m going.”
He winced. My words stung him. “Cami, listen. I know what you must be feeling. I believe even if we left now and took everyone with us to help, we wouldn’t stand a chance against Zeus’ wrath, and we’d probably be too late anyway. Stay here. We’ll send others to try to find Drake and Zandra. We need you. Not just your family, but all of the herds need you.” His tone softened when he added, “I need you.”
Any other moment in my life his confession would have brought me to a blubbering mess. Growing up without a father was painful. I’d always dreamed of this guy, wanting a father who wanted me. The fact that he was willing to send his sons who he had raised since birth into certain death in an effort to spare me wasn’t lost on me. More touching was that I knew each of my half-brothers would volunteer without hesitation to do it.
But it wasn’t any other moment in my life. It was now. I couldn’t live without Drake. If Zeus killed him, he would be driving a stake through my heart at the same time. I wouldn’t survive. A shell of a Centauride would live on, but it wouldn’t be me.
“There’s nothing you can say. I’m going, with or without your help.”
Will walked to the window and stood, his back to me. “That night you first called me, do you remember?”
; Of course I remembered. I had replayed our conversation in my mind at least a hundred times since then. It had only been a few months ago, but it could have been yesterday. “I remember.”
“When we hung up, I fell to my knees. I think somehow in the back of my mind, I knew that Angela had lied to me. I was ashamed of my deception, that I had purposely seduced her. I regretted that I had broken my vow to Gretchen. I was furious with my father for ordering me to do it. But when I hung up the phone that night, I knew that my lies and deception had resulted in a person who could change the world.”
Frustrated that he chose now to own up to his actions, I blurted out, “Look, I forgive you, okay? I know why you did it. I’m glad to be alive. That wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t done what you did.”
Will still faced the window. His shoulders slumped, “That just makes this all the harder.” I wasn’t ready for a touching moment. I had a clear path to the door. I readjusted my backpack on my shoulders and took a few steps before his words caught me up short. “I forbid you to leave.”
My back stiffened as an actual laugh escaped me. Will didn’t know me at all. In the twenty-three years I’d had with Mom, she’d never breathed those words to me. She knew me too well. Forbid me? Who was he to me? A father who wanted me after I’d already found my own way?
My hand was on the door knob when he finally turned toward me, “You’ll stay; forcibly if necessary. Centaur Enforcers are positioned outside the door. They have orders to detain you. You have my word that I will do everything in my power to find Drake and Zandra and get them back here, but you aren’t going.”
He wasn’t serious. I opened the door to call his bluff, but sure enough, there were twenty enforcers standing at attention in the hallway, evenly spaced between the doors. I slowly closed the door. “I’m leaving. There’s nothing you or those goons can do to stop me.”
Centaur Redemption (Touched Series) Page 15