“I would like an update on what is happening with the Lurkers.”
I glanced at Mercedes, who nodded, clearing her throat. “I have created a task force to research the Lurkers as you requested.” (I hadn’t really requested it—it had been her idea all along. But anyhoo …) “And what they have reported back to me is of great interest.”
“Wonderful,” I answered as I offered her an expression that said, Please continue.
Mercedes glanced around the table as if to make sure she had everyone’s attention. Really, she always had everyone’s attention. I think, in general, everyone was afraid of her.
“First, it is important to inform everyone here of those who make up this task force. I appointed eight creatures, all of whom I believed to be the best candidates: a female witch, three male vampires, two female weres, and, lastly, a male and a female fairy.”
“Aye, Anwien and Marmion are amoong the best warriors o’ my fae,” Odran added.
Sinjin chuckled. “I would say the vampires chosen for the position were also the best but that would be a lie as the best are already employed in the Queen’s defense.” Then he faced Varick and said, almost as an afterthought: “That statement of course includes you, my elder.”
Varick said nothing, but nodded, as if he approved of Sinjin’s deference. I was about to smile but then I heard Klaasje giggle and the smile dropped right off my lips. I glanced over at her beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous, thick dark hair and wished I were a bigger person.
Mercedes glanced at the two of them and then faced me with a raised eyebrow, like she didn’t appreciate the joking. Go, Mercedes.
“I heard they had to take tests,” Trent chimed in with a bit of a chuckle, like he would never be caught dead taking a test. And maybe that made sense—I wouldn’t exactly describe him as the sharpest wolf in the pack.
Mercedes faced him and her expression hinted that she wasn’t amused. “Yes, I wanted only the best creatures for the position. I hand-selected those who appeared the most promising and then further narrowed the group based upon their test scores. I tested not only their IQs but also their reaction times in combat situations, their ability to think outside the proverbial box in strategy preparation, as well as their ability to defend themselves.”
I nodded, impressed. Really, everything Mercedes did was impressive. She was some prophetess. “Sounds like you did a really good job, Mercedes, thank you.”
Mercedes smiled her pleasure. “As to the information we have found thus far, we’ve had reports of Lurker activity all across the United States as well as Europe, which leads us to believe they are not located in any one place but spread out.
“And from a report given to me by the witch Freida, they are in training both day and night.”
Suddenly I was worried about the tactics of the task force. The last thing I wanted was torture on my hands. “How are you getting this information, Mercedes?”
“Mostly through interviews with anyone who has had interactions with the Lurkers, my Queen. We have paid especially close attention to those who were killed by the Lurkers and were subsequently reanimated. And with fae magic, we were able to re-create scenes to observe their strategies during combat. Based on that, we were able to learn much about them.”
Good, torture apparently wasn’t a part of the equation. Relief.
“And your plans moving forward?” Rand asked.
Mercedes nodded but said nothing right away, as if Rand’s question wasn’t so easy to answer. Finally she took a deep breath and turned toward me. “In order to learn what we need to, we must capture a Lurker.”
Odran nodded immediately, as if he’d been waiting for someone to say as much. “Aye. We need ta stoody them.”
Rand nodded as well but said nothing more. Everyone around the table fell silent as their gazes settled on me.
“If our Queen endorses this approach, we will move forward,” Mercedes finished and looked at me expectantly.
“I do think it is … necessary,” I began before hesitation captured my voice. “But please instruct your team to try to do so without hurting anyone. I want it to be known that we will kill only when we have no other choice,” I finished with as much authority as I could muster.
Mercedes merely nodded and said nothing more. Realizing this topic was now at its end, I glanced at the agenda and moved to the next question, eyeing Sinjin. “Sinjin, you informed me that Bella had agreed to help us reanimate her dead soldiers?”
Sinjin nodded. “I did, my Queen.”
I couldn’t help but notice that Rand’s gaze narrowed on Sinjin and his jaw was tight. He looked like he was in fight-or-flight mode, just waiting for one wrong word to set him off. Rand shifted in his chair as if he couldn’t get comfortable. Then it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I was just painting him with jealousy that didn’t exist—maybe he wasn’t bothered at all by Sinjin—maybe he just had a wedgie.
“And where do we stand?” I asked, reminding myself to pay attention to the agenda—not Rand and his foul mood.
Sinjin nodded. “Bella will provide me with a list of her deceased. She is creating that list as we speak.”
We still hadn’t managed to reanimate the entirety of our legion, but we were getting closer.
I faced my agenda again and sighed, knowing this next point would be a hard sell. “Due to the fact that Bella has agreed to work with us, I believe we should give her a second chance.”
“Jolie,” Rand started but his voice was lost in Odran’s.
“Bella shouldna be alloowed ta live,” he said, his hazel eyes burning. He bashed his fist onto the table as if to reiterate his objection. His long, wavy blond hair fell off his shoulders as if it, too, were shocked by his violent display.
“Watch yourself,” Sinjin growled, his eyes narrowed on Odran.
“Watch yer oown self, fang face.”
“Okay, enough, we’re all adults here,” I started, alternating my glares between Odran and Sinjin. “I will not order Bella’s death,” I said resolutely. “I will not have her death on my hands.”
“She can be controlled.” Sinjin steepled his fingers in his lap as though this conversation did nothing but bore him. “Bella is a threat, yes, but she is a threat that can be managed.”
“Said like a true womanizer,” Klaasje added with a laugh but it was somehow a sad laugh, as if she thought it was a shame.
Sinjin smiled slightly, like he was amused by her comment. His eyes met mine and his smile widened.
“Jolie,” Rand started again. “Bella is a severe threat, no matter what anyone else says. She’s a danger to your existence.”
“Randall, the Queen is protected both night and day,” Sinjin announced in a tone that implied Rand was an idiot.
Rand’s eyes burned with anger as he glared at the vampire. “Where Jolie is concerned, I don’t trust anyone. Not Bella and certainly not you.”
I was getting extremely irritated with all the testosterone in the room. “Rand, I don’t have an alternative. We can’t keep Bella locked up forever, and I don’t want to kill her.”
“She needs to die,” Trent said with finality before glancing up at me. “If you don’t want to order it, then maybe someone else should.”
“No,” I rebutted as I angrily stood up. I pushed my chair out and walked to the window, which overlooked the craggy shore below. I was the Queen and on this point, I would not waver. Bella would not be executed. Not on my watch. I turned to face everyone in the room again. “I will not have Bella’s death on my conscience, especially since we’d be killing her in cold blood.”
“Perhaps we should hear what the witch has to say for herself,” Mathilda suggested in her soft cadence.
“Would you like me to call for Bella, my Queen?” Mercedes asked, glancing up at me. I turned toward the window again, wishing the puffins that flew in and out of the rocks had an answer for me.
Finally I faced the room and nodded. “I’d like to offer her the opportunity to b
ecome a citizen of our kingdom.”
Mercedes stood up and started for the door. “Very well.”
Jolie. It was Rand. Please don’t trust Bella.
I refused to look at him. Instead I watched Mercedes open the door and disappear into the hall. What choice do I have? Do you think we should just kill her?
Of course not. But at the same time, I don’t believe you should embrace her like she’s your long-lost friend.
I glanced at him and frowned. That’s exaggerating.
But you get the gist?
Until someone else can come up with a better solution, I think this is the only way forward. Besides, she will take the truth serum and the oath just like all her soldiers did.
Truth serums and oaths aside, I don’t trust her. Jolie, sometimes you have a very optimistic and, dare I say it, naïve perspective regarding the world.
I narrowed my eyes. Is that all you have to say?
Will you please just trust me on this? Don’t give Bella the benefit of the doubt, Jolie. At the very least she’ll disappoint you. At the very most—
Rand didn’t have the chance to finish his statement because Mercedes suddenly appeared at the door again. She stepped inside and to the right, as the two weres who had been guarding Bella walked into the room, with her between them. Sinjin was immediately beside me and in another second Klaasje flanked my other side. They were bodyguards bar none.
Bella was beautiful—she always had been—but her beauty was created of hard lines and a general angularity. There was nothing soft and feminine about her. Her oval face finished in a square jaw, and her full lips were frowning at the moment. Her hair was a deep, dark brown but also had a reddish tinge to it. Adding to this her olive complexion, she could definitely be described as “exotic.”
As to her figure, she was tall and curvaceous, built according to the hourglass, the quintessential ideal of feminine beauty. But there was a blight on Bella’s beauty—there always had been. It was tainted by the perpetual scowl on her face, tainted by the ugliness of her personality.
Bella didn’t say anything for a second or two and, instead, just wore an anxious, unhappy expression. Her gaze traveled around the room, as if she wanted to take stock of all who were present.
“Hi, Bella,” I greeted her.
She turned her ire-filled eyes to me and looked me up and down in an age-old bitchy way.
“Why did you order me here?” she demanded finally, crossing her arms against her chest as if it were her last defense. “My list of soldiers is not complete.”
“I suggest ye speak with respect to yer Queen,” Odran spat out in disgust.
She glanced at Odran indifferently before gazing back at me. She remained mute and raised her brows as if to say she wasn’t impressed.
“I am inviting you to become a member of our society,” I said as I took a few steps away from the table. When Sinjin started to close in on me, I looked at him and shook my head. I didn’t want a shadow … or two. “I don’t imagine you want to be locked up forever?”
“No, I don’t.”
I nodded, trying my best to seem unthreatening. I wasn’t sure I was succeeding. “I’m trying to give you the chance to live a good life.”
“Go on,” she said. Some of her anger seemed to have dissipated, although she didn’t drop her arms from across her chest.
“I appreciate your help in reanimating your fallen,” I continued.
Bella looked at Sinjin. “It wasn’t like I had much of a choice.”
Sinjin glanced at me and shrugged.
“At any rate, I appreciate it and I’d like to return the favor,” I finished.
“If you’d like to return the favor, then let me live my life outside the monarchy. Let me be a renegade like Rand always was,” she spat out. Her eyes found Rand. “And where do you stand in all of this now? Are you still a renegade?”
Rand frowned and his face was stoic, placid. “Jolie’s vision of monarchy is drastically different from yours.”
“You never believed in any form of monarchy,” she retorted. “You must be screwing her.”
“You do not disrespect the Queen!” Mercedes ordered, shocking the hell out of me and probably everyone else in the room. “You are extremely fortunate she has decided to spare you.”
Mercedes’ rainbow aura was in full effect and the blue and purplish sections seemed to glow the brightest, revealing her anger. Bella appeared to shrink a bit in front of the furious prophetess. I’m sure she was intimidated. Hell, I was intimidated, and Mercedes was defending me. Thank God she was on my side …
“You don’t have the option to be a renegade,” I said simply to Bella. “You either become a member of my kingdom or you stay imprisoned. The choice is yours.”
Bella was quiet as her attention shifted back to Sinjin. “And they have included you in this so-called monarchy?”
Sinjin shrugged, maintaining his expression of ennui. “I support my Queen wholeheartedly.”
“Your Queen.” Bella snickered. “There was a time when you said the exact same words to me.”
Sinjin returned the snicker. “Except with you I never meant them.”
Bella gnashed her teeth as if the lioness within her was about to make itself known. “How quickly you switch sides.”
“I never switched sides.” Sinjin’s eyes narrowed. “I was never on yours.”
“I don’t think we really need to get into this now,” I said, sensing that Bella’s temper was about to erupt like Old Faithful. But Bella ignored me.
“So, what, are you bedding her like you did me? Winning her over with your charisma and your lies?”
Sinjin never took his eyes off Bella. I could see the imprints of sharp teeth in his lower lip.
“I am dedicated solely to the Queen and her protection is my only duty,” he answered, and his accent somehow seemed deeper, stronger.
“Answer the question,” Bella seethed. “Are you screwing her like you screwed me?”
“No, he isn’t,” I said for Sinjin when he made no motion to answer. I suddenly felt anger spiraling up my throat, constricting it until I could barely catch my breath. “Not that it’s any of your damn business.”
Bella faced me, her cheeks flushed, her eyes so angry, it looked as if she might burst. “And do you actually believe he’s trustworthy?” She laughed acidly and faced Sinjin again. “I trusted him and look what he did to me.”
“This has—” I started.
“The one truth about Sinjin Sinclair is that he’s only out for himself. He doesn’t give a shit about anyone,” Bella interrupted.
Before I could blink Sinjin leapt forward, and in a split second Bella was in his arms, her neck braced between his fangs. All he had to do was bite down to sever her carotid artery.
“Sinjin!” I screamed. “Let her go.”
“I should sink my fangs into you and kill you,” he seethed, glaring down at her.
She said nothing but gulped down her fear. Instantly Odran and Rand were beside Sinjin. Rand was first to grasp his arm; Odran took the other.
“Release her,” Rand said in a tight voice.
“It is yer Queen’s command,” Odran reiterated.
Sinjin retracted his fangs. In another second he pushed Bella away and took a step back, shaking himself loose from Rand and Odran.
“You will never again compare yourself to Jolie,” Sinjin warned, staring at Bella as his chest heaved, which was odd considering Sinjin didn’t breathe, couldn’t breathe. He must have just been super pissed off. “You are nothing but a blight. If you ever so much as look at your Queen with anything but respect, I will finish you.”
Bella’s eyes narrowed. “So you could kill me just as easily as you bedded me?”
Sinjin returned to the table and took a seat, brushing himself off as if nothing had happened, and he hadn’t just humiliated Bella in front of all of us.
“I believe the answer is quite clear,” he finished.
And then Be
lla did something that surprised me. She laughed. Granted, it was sour and dripping with sarcasm, but it was a laugh all the same.
“You are such a fool,” she said. I gulped as I glanced at Sinjin, hoping he wouldn’t attack her again. “I actually feel nothing but pity for you.”
“I can’t imagine why,” he replied in a droll voice, as if he was doing her a favor by continuing to listen to her.
Bella nodded like she was going to give him an earful. “Because you’re in love with a woman who’s in love with another man.”
JOURNAL ENTRY
Dear Ms. Diary, phew … I really don’t know what to say about that whole situation with Bella last night, er, today—I can’t even seem to keep track of time. I just checked the clock and it’s four a.m. so I guess that means our meeting with Bella ended early this morning (just a few hours ago as a matter of fact).
I’m actually pretty upset with Sinjin because I feel like he spurred Bella on intentionally—like he wanted to hurt her. I tried to go to sleep once the meeting ended but I’ve been up all night thinking about it. I wonder if the fact that Sinjin had to feign loyalty to Bella in the past—and in doing so had sex with her—really offended some deep-down part of him in that labyrinth of mystery and subterfuge he calls his heart. (And I won’t even get into the ways their sexcapades offended and still do offend me. Let’s just say it’s a visual I desperately try to avoid.)
As to whether or not Sinjin really was shamed by his relations with Bella—it’s all just speculation. It could be nothing more than me pinning Sinjin with remorse and regret where none truly exist. And really, what man wouldn’t want to have sex with a woman as beautiful as Bella? Even if she is the spawn of the devil? I just can’t really understand why Sinjin acted with such passionate vehemence toward her. Was it to protect me? To prove something? Because he honestly hates her? As usual, I’m never really sure what Sinjin is up to or what his true intentions are. What I can say is that Sinjin acted without thinking and now I’m sure Bella isn’t going to want to have anything to do with us. And based on his show of … anger toward her, I also wonder if he’s the best candidate to procure her list of deceased soldiers. Hmm, maybe I should pass that duty to Rand instead.
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