by J. N. Baker
I had a suspicious feeling that William knew exactly what Baldric wanted with Josh, and I was sick and tired of being left in the dark. No pun intended. I followed after him, taking the stairs two at a time, fully prepared to push him on the matter. But when I stepped into what should have been the courtyard, I froze.
I found I was no longer inside the castle as I should have been. Instead, I was standing outside its walls, a thin layer of snow on the ground that wasn’t there before. When had it started snowing? And the remains, where had the Sythen remains gone? There was no possible way our people could have cleaned up such a mess in such a short amount of time, vampires or not.
Our people…
Making a slow circle, I scanned the area. The carnage wasn’t the only thing missing. Where was everyone?
“What the…”
I swallowed hard. It had to be a vision. But a vision of what? I had a feeling I didn’t want to know.
And then something caught my attention in the distance. A single person kneeling in the snow. I squinted. Cody? I made my way silently toward him.
As I got closer, his crying reached my ears and my feet faltered. What was happening? I watched him from afar, the rise and fall of his shoulders, his shuddering breaths, the way his hands trembled at his sides. He was kneeling over something. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what.
I took a hesitant step forward, and then another, until I was standing just a few feet behind him. I forgot how to breathe.
Directly in front of Cody was a crudely made wooden cross, a name scratched into it that I couldn’t see over his bowed head. Stretched out on either side of him were more wooden crosses with more names. Too many to count. My eyes darted back to Cody as he ran a shaky hand over the cross in front of him.
My own hands shook at my sides.
Cody sighed, wiping at his face before climbing to his feet. He stumbled back a step and all the air in my lungs left me.
“No…”
Written on the wooden cross was a name I wasn’t prepared to see. Cindy.
Cody turned to face me, his face hard and tear streaked. He opened his mouth to speak, only it was Cindy’s voice that came out.
“Zoe? Zoe, what are you doing? Hello?”
I blinked hard, Cindy’s round face coming into focus in front of me in the courtyard.
“Huh?”
“I asked you where the hell Tiffany went,” she said, her words running together. “She was with me during the attack of those flying monster things and, like, she just took off out of nowhere and I haven’t been able to find—”
“Cindy!” I exclaimed, lunging for her. I wrapped my arms around her short frame, squeezing her a bit harder than I probably should have, but I didn’t care. She was alive and that was all that mattered. A dark voice in the back of my mind whispered, but for how long?
“Nice to see you too,” she laughed, pulling away from my tight embrace.
I held her at arm’s length, almost afraid to let her go. “You’re okay,” I breathed.
“Um, yeah,” she said, “are you?”
I blew out a breath and dropped my hands away from her. “I am now.”
And I would be as long as she stayed safe. William and all fate be damned, this was one vision I refused to let happen. Cindy was going to live. This girl was going to grow old and gray and complain about every white hair and wrinkle she got until she made me want to scream. I was going to make sure of it.
“So, like, where’s Tiffany?” she asked again.
“She’s dead.”
Cindy paled, her jaw hanging open. Maybe I should have been a bit gentler with the news. “W-what do you mean she’s dead?” she shrieked.
“I mean, she’s dead. She was killed.” Based on her horrified expression, that hadn’t made her feel much better. I’d left out the part about Tiffany being a traitorous vampire who had her head removed by William. That had to count for something, right? And then an idea hit me. “She didn’t follow directions and stay where she was supposed to be and it got her killed,” I explained. “I don’t ever want anything like that to happen to you, Cindy.”
She shook her head, crying. I wanted to give her a good, hard shake and tell her not to waste any tears over that fang face bitch, but instead I held my tongue. “You need to promise me that you’ll always stay within the castle walls,” I continued.
“But, like, what about when the big fight happens? Markus said everyone has to fight. You know I’m a lover not a fighter.”
“You’ll stay inside,” I told her and she visibly relaxed. “You’ll stay with Annie and help her with the children and anything else she needs. You will never leave this castle. Not until all of this is over. You’ll be safe inside the castle, do you understand?”
Cindy nodded, a bit of color starting to come back to her face. “How is Josh?” she finally asked and it was my turn to pale.
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
“You didn’t…” she trailed off, her eyes dropping to the stone floor as she worried her bottom lip.
“No, I didn’t do it,” I finished for her. But it feels like I did. She looked relieved.
“Maybe I’ll go check on Josh,” she suggested, her voice a bit lighter. “Use my natural womanly charm to cheer him up. And by charm, I mean my boobs.”
A small smile spread across my face. “Yeah, I’m sure that’ll work. Just make sure you stay inside the castle.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Promise me, Cindy,” I told her. “You need to promise me so I know you’ll be safe.”
She rolled her eyes in typical Cindy fashion. “Yeah, I promise. I’ll be like Rapunzel. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go find me a Prince Charming to cheer up.”
I watched as she sauntered away, heading toward for the spiral staircase. I would keep her safe. I would make sure the vision didn’t come true. I had to.
I made my way up the staircase opposite of Cindy, remembering where to go from Alec’s tour of the castle. Where I was once eager to get into the great hall, I now found myself moving slowly, dragging my feet up each shallow step. I was sure William wanted to discuss what happened during the Sythen attack. I didn’t see a point in rehashing it. Not like we didn’t all have a front row seat to the action.
Plus, I knew if we talked about what happened, there was a damn good chance William was going to grill me on my new ability. Right. Like I suddenly knew why I could shoot lightning bolts out of my hands.
When I finally reached the entrance to the hall, a hand fell to my hip and I instinctively went for my blade.
“Easy,” Alec whispered, tightening his grip. “It’s just me.”
His golden eyes met mine and I relaxed, if only a little.
“Too good for the stairs?” I mumbled, resisting the urge to push him away. I could still feel Baldric’s hands crawling all over me. “Watch out,” I said, “don’t want to teleport yourself out of that rock-hard six pack.”
“That’s the only part of him that’s hard,” an amused voice said from behind us. I turned to see Ryuu and Jade stepping out of the stairwell.
“Don’t forget his hard head,” Jade added.
“Oh yes. How could I ever forget that? Stubborn as a mule, this one.”
Ryuu clapped Alec on the shoulder as he and Jade strolled into the great hall, Alec and me following after them. As we entered the room, I saw Annie was already there, seated in a wooden chair with William behind her.
If it weren’t for William’s incessant pacing, I would’ve had more time to admire the two-story vaulted wood ceilings and giant cathedral windows on either side of the room.
The great hall was indeed great, but I’d have to admire it some other time. When William saw us, he motioned for us to sit at a large round table in the center of the room. It was remarkably reminiscent of the one from his little eleventh century flashback in the hotel room back in Santa Cruz.
“How many did we lose?” Alec came right out and asked.
<
br /> “Too many,” William growled, coming to a stop before he wore a hole through the floor. With our already lower numbers compared to Baldric’s, twenty could’ve easily been “too many.” We weren’t in a position to lose a single person; we needed all the manpower we could get.
“Do we have enough to withstand a bigger attack?” Annie asked as William sat beside her.
Jade snorted, rolling her silver eyes. “Did we ever have enough?” she muttered. “How many of those flying fuckers did we take down anyway?” she asked a little louder.
“We?” Ryuu countered, cocking a dark brow at her. “We took down a grand total of five. Zoe took down ten times that.”
Jade rolled her eyes again and shot me a glare like it was a damn competition. “That’s right,” she sneered. “Sparky over here saved us all.”
“It was a decent chunk out of Baldric’s winged army,” Alec said, ignoring Jade altogether. “But the shadow people told me they believe there are hundreds more where those came from.”
“Of course there are,” I mumbled. “Do we even stand a chance?”
William’s hard eyes met mine. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“You.”
“Me?” I choked. “How the hell is this suddenly dependent on me?”
“Your new power.”
Well, that didn’t take long. I ran a hand over my face to hide my own eye roll.
“I do not fully understand what happened to you at Stonehenge, Zoe,” William said, “but whatever it was, it has clearly given you a powerful new ability. As much as it pains me to say, I must agree with Baldric. Once you learn to harness this new ability, you could very well be unstoppable. You defeated fifty of the Sythen in a single instant. Imagine what you could do if you were able to tap into that ability at will.”
“But I don’t know how I did it,” I groaned. “It just happened.” I stood, starting my own pacing across the large room. I could feel William’s eyes following me. I could feel all their eyes.
“Then I suggest you figure it out,” William retorted. “It might be the only chance we have to defeat Baldric.”
“Why don’t we just find an outlet and plug her in?” Jade joked. “Maybe Sparky just needs a good long charge.”
“Shut up, Jade,” Alec growled.
“I am serious, Zoe,” William continued. “You must figure out how to use this new power.”
“I’ll get right on it,” I grumbled.
“Now.”
“Excuse me?” I snapped, spinning around to him.
“You will figure it out now,” William said. “Why do you think I called us here together? We are going to help you find a way to summon this new power of yours. And quickly. There is no time to waste.”
“How the hell do you plan to…” The words fell away from me as Jade stood, cracking her knuckles before pulling out a pair of throwing knives from behind her back. I didn’t like how eager she looked. Ryuu flashed me an apologetic smile as he unsheathed his katana.
“What?” I asked in disbelief. “You’re going to beat it out of me?”
“Of course not,” William said, his voice far too calm for comfort. “You lack the appropriate self-preservation for that to ever work.” His eyes darted to Alec. “No, I have a different tactic in mind.”
“William, no!”
Before I could stop him, William shot around the table and grabbed Alec by the throat, yanking him to his feet. Alec tried to resist, though I noticed he wasn’t trying very hard. He knew as well as I did that there was no way William would actually kill him. But there were far worse things in life than death.
“This is the only way, Zoe,” William said. “We need to do this.”
“No, we don’t,” I snapped. “This is insane. You guys have to realize how ridiculous this is.”
A flash of silver cut through the air and Alec grunted, wincing as he looked down at the knife protruding from his shoulder. He glowered at Jade and she smirked.
“Ridiculously fun,” she said, setting up to toss the second knife.
“Stop!” Annie shouted, her normally soft voice echoing off the rafters. “William, I’m sure our people are strong enough to hold Baldric off,” she pleaded, nervous green eyes meeting mine. “I don’t think we need to do this. Zoe said she doesn’t know how it happens. I think she’s telling the truth—she can’t control it.”
“I cannot risk it,” William said. “We have to try everything we can. Baldric cannot win.”
“Sorry, brother,” Ryuu mumbled, approaching Alec with his sword raised. “This is going to hurt me a hell of a lot more than it’s going to hurt you.”
“Doubtful,” Alec growled.
As the sword came down I made my move, flying across the room toward Ryuu.
I tackled him to the ground before he could run Alec through with his blade. But when I went to rip the weapon from his hand, I found it was no longer there. Instead, it hovered in the air above us, tip pointed at Alec’s stomach.
“No!”
The sword moved of its own accord, the katana’s sharp edge slicing through Alec’s flesh over and over at rapid speed. Alec yelled, his blood splattering across the floor. I saw red.
I leapt to my feet and snatched the blade out of the air mid-slash. As Ryuu stood, I spun on my heel and spear chucked his sword straight through his chest, somewhat careful to miss his heart. I didn’t actually want to kill him…yet. Ryuu stumbled back, crashing into the wooden table beside Annie who squeaked as she scrambled out of her chair.
When I turned around, three Jades stood between Alec and me. “How about that rain check?” they said in unison, beckoning me forward. Behind them, William twisted the knife still embedded in Alec’s shoulder and Alec cursed.
“This is crazy,” I shouted. “We don’t have time for this!”
“She’s right, William,” Ryuu agreed as he pulled his own sword from his body. “This isn’t going to work. She has no real motivation. She knows Alec will heal and she knows we would never kill him.”
A devilish grin spread across all three Jades’ lips as they fused back into one infuriating woman. “I know what will work,” she announced. “I’ll be right back.”
With that, Jade sprinted out of the great hall with record speed. Moments later, there was arguing in the stairwell.
“Where is she?” a deep male voice called. Annie shot me a questioning look and my stomach dropped. Jade wouldn’t…would she? Who was I kidding? Of course she would.
“Hurry up, human! She’s in here.”
Jade stepped back into the room, a panting Josh in tow. When he hit the brakes, she reached back and grabbed his shirt, yanking him forward.
“What the fuck is going on?” Josh snapped, eyes meeting mine. “You said Zoe was in trouble.”
“Oh, she is,” Jade said. “Zoe is a very bad girl and is in a great deal of trouble. I think a spanking is in order.”
“What is the meaning of this, Jade?” William asked, releasing a bloodied but healing Alec.
“Think about it,” Jade started. “Each time Sparky over here electrocuted someone, her precious human was nearby. Maybe there’s something about him that brings it out of her.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Josh raged, looking at Jade as if she’d lost her damned mind. I was pretty sure she had.
“Alec couldn’t get her juices flowing,” Jade continued, flashing Alec a wicked grin, “but I bet this one can. She’d do anything for her human.”
Alec’s growl reverberated through the room and Annie cowered.
Jade grabbed hold of Josh’s arm and pulled his muscular body into hers, his large frame making even her tall body seem small. She pressed a dagger to his throat where bruises were already surfacing from Baldric’s fingers and rage swelled within me.
Josh struggled against her. “Let go of me!” he roared.
Jade tightened her grip on him. “Like Ryuu said, Zoe knows we won’t kill Alec and that he’ll simply
heal. But her human? She knows damn well I’d kill him for no more than a fucking Klondike bar.”
“No!”
“Ryuu!” she shouted.
At his mate’s command, Ryuu bolted for me, catching my arms as I lunged for her throat. He strained against me, digging his heels in to hold me back.
“Shit, you’re strong,” he huffed.
Alec rushed to my side. For all of a second, I thought he was coming to my aid. Instead, he grabbed one of my arms from Ryuu, helping to restrain me. The two men pulled me back by my arms, leaving my hands free in case I got electric. They were lucky I didn’t know how to control my new power. I’d give them the shock of their damn lives.
“Don’t you fucking touch him,” I snarled.
“Or what?” Jade taunted, pressing the tip of her blade into his neck until it broke skin and Josh flinched.
“What are you doing?” Annie shrieked.
“Jade,” William warned. “I want the human kept alive.”
“Why?” she hissed. “He’s likely a traitor.”
“He is still needed.”
“What he needs is to die. He brought the enemy behind our walls. I bet he and his bloodsucker were working together. That’s probably why Baldric wants him so badly. He’s the enemy—a fucking traitor.”
“Jade’s right,” Alec said from beside me, tightening his grip on my arm as I tried to break free. “The human cannot be trusted after what happened with his vampire girlfriend. He will likely betray us just as she did.”
“Leave him alone!” I shouted, tugging Alec and Ryuu forward a full foot. “He isn’t a traitor!”
“You’re right,” Jade said. “It wasn’t him who brought that blond bitch here. It was you. It was you who was so adamant that we allow the two of them to come with us. It was you who couldn’t get yourself to kill the bloodsucker. And it was you who just happily volunteered to go with Baldric. Maybe it’s you who is the traitor.”
“That’s absurd,” Annie said.
“You’re right. She’s far too stupid to be a double agent. She doesn’t even know how to use her own fucking powers.”