by Cat Miller
He rolled them to their sides and tucked her in next to him. Grateful he still had the strength to do so. Brandi purred and snuggled down until the little electric aftershocks faded into a sated sleep.
They drifted in and out of sleep, making love twice more during the early evening hours until they both knew it was time to leave their drowsy haven and face the world. Brandi ordered room service and they ate in companionable silence. Neither of them wanted to taint the reverent atmosphere created by their loving. It was Brandi who began.
“You should know what happened with Grey…”
“Don’t say his name.” Derek cut her off. He hated the sound of his name on her lips. Brandi smiled, likely remembering a similar argument in the woods.
“And I don’t need to know. We both have pasts. He who shall not be named is part of yours.” He smiled back at her.
“Did you seriously just quote Harry Potter?” She fell over laughing.
Derek soaked up the sight of a broad smile on her beautiful mouth. He could come up with tons of stupid pop culture references if it meant he got to watch her laugh like that again. He was glad to have released some of the tension in the air but he really did hate to hear her say that name. When her giggles finally wound down he spoke from the heart. Just like he promised himself he would if he had the chance when he was in that cell last night. Derek pulled Brandi onto his lap and held her.
“I don’t need to know what happened unless it will make you feel better to talk about it. All that matters to me is I love you and you now know it. I fought it so hard in the beginning. I have nothing to offer you and the fear of rejection still weighs heavily on me. But my fear is no match for the intense need I have to be near you.”
Brandi stroked his face and kissed his eyelids when they drifted shut under her caress.
“I know you are trying to understand the situation with my mom but that doesn’t undo all of the wrongs I’ve done. And there are so many things I just can’t tell you yet.”
They held each other and he knew Brandi was gathering her thoughts. He knew she wanted him too, but that didn’t mean he had it in the bag. There would be conditions to their starting a real life together. Conditions he couldn’t comply with until he played his part in the coming struggle, but how could he make her understand without breaking Tessa’s confidences? His gut said he had to keep the things he learned from Tessa a secret until he was free to be with Brandi.
“I guess we both have some things to work out, huh?” she asked.
“Yeah, I need some time to try to get my mom out. I don’t even know where he’s keeping her, but I have to try. I can’t just leave her behind. If I can find her I’ll walk away, Sparky. I’ll do anything to be like this with you forever.”
“Of course, I understand that.” She paused and looked away.
“What will you do when he sends you for me, Derek?”
“He doesn’t know who you are. He only knows there’s a female pyro on the Enclave.” He tried to reassure her. She smiled grimly.
“It’s only a matter of time and you know it.” Brandi rose from his lap to pace the floor in front of the coffee table.
“Your lack of an answer is answer enough for me. I understand. If it comes down to me or your mom, well, enough said.”
“I think you’re assuming too much. Did you know Nate left The Nest to be with Karrie?” She looked surprised. “He did. I saw them. I can’t be absolutely sure, but I think they’re already mated and keeping it a secret.” He smiled.
“I want that for us. Not the secret part but the mated part. I want to be with you, and share my life with you. I just don’t know what kind of life I can offer the daughter of a Councilman. Hell, I don’t know what I could offer the daughter of any man.”
He shook his head. Brandi crawled back into his lap.
“I’ll likely be disowned anyway.” She shrugged.
She rested her face against his chest. Derek hadn’t even considered the consequences Brandi would pay to be with him.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I have to go to the Council and admit to my power now that it’s out in the open. My parents are probably worried sick. They’re gonna want to lock me away for my own good.
“You can’t do anything but go along with things on your end until you find your mother. Then what?”
She was quiet for a minute, drawling circles on his chest while he stroked her hair.
“I have a question. Does he keep your mother drugged? Why doesn’t she leave on her own?”
This was not a conversation he could have without being partially dishonest. He hated giving her half-truths but Brandi deserved what he could give her.
“Mom is half-mated to the Master.”
Brandi’s head snapped up and she gasped.
“Yeah, I know. It’s screwed up. It’s a lot like the bonding between Darren and Dani. The Master’s ability to drain other vamp’s power by drinking from them has a downside. He can’t bond to anyone. It fades in a matter of hours. She is devoted to him, but to him she is no more than a tool. My mother swears he loves her and it’s not his fault he can’t be faithful. It’s disgusting.”
“So you’re telling me that not only do you need to break her out, but you need to convince her to leave with you? You have to convince her to leave her mate? Darren hasn’t given up on Dani yet and she’s bonded to another man. Why would your mom be any different?”
Brandi’s eyes were wide and sad. She didn’t believe he would ever get out and Derek couldn’t really blame her. She just shook her head and climbed off of his lap again.
“I’m not stupid, Derek. I know there’s a lot you’re not saying. I still haven’t figured out why I found you with Tessa and Debbie.” She looked defeated, “Secrets and lies. How do you build a life on secrets and lies? It’s the reason I was clinging to Greyson. You give me no reason to hope for a future. I didn’t love him but I wanted to. I cared very deeply for him but I really wanted to love him. He just wouldn’t let me. But, at least I knew where I stood with him, or at least I thought I did.” She laughed a little hysterically.
“He showed me, didn’t he? I got my feelings hurt and exposed myself in a fit of temper over embarrassment and lies.”
Derek growled. There was nothing he could do and only one more thing left to say.
“Well, I do love you. For now I can’t give you any more than that.”
****
She loved him too, but Brandi couldn’t say it. Somehow it felt like admitting defeat. It would be like rewarding him for breaking her heart. And he would break her heart. Brandi had just spent the most amazing day of her life with a man that was the absolute worst choice she could have made. Derek was a minion for the Rogue. He lied and cheated and he hurt people for a living. It would be forbidden. She would lose everything that made her Brandi Vaughn, including her family, if she chose to be with him, whether he left the Rogue or not.
But that didn’t stop her from wanting to run into his arms. It didn’t stop her foolish heart from falling for him or her traitorous body from craving his like an addict, after only one day in his arms. He crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her. Again his scent made her hungry and hot but she denied the need. Damn, she needed to feed. How long had it been?
“I have to go. I’ll be missed soon,” he stated flatly, resignation in his voice.
“Me too. I need to see my father. He’s working in his chambers at the hall. According to Debbie he’s practically living there to avoid my mother.” She smiled. “But that’s a story for another day.”
Together they left the hotel and exited the building. Derek hailed her a cab and faded back into the shadows. That was where he lived, in the shadows of life. Brandi remembered what life was like when people never saw you because the shadows swallowed you whole. She would try to remember that in the future.
EIGHTEEN
“How long have you been aware of this mutated power, Ms. Vaughn?” Kane Stafford asked Brandi.
She sat with her spine straight as a rod in the chair across from Griffin’s desk in the Council chambers.
“I experienced it for the first time the other day,” she lied.
Griffin knew it was lie and so did Kane. The bastard. She couldn’t look at anyone when she said it. Brandi had never been able to lie successfully so she didn’t try. Today though, for some reason, she was dissembling and Griffin had every intention of finding out why, as soon as he got rid of the rest of the assembled Council members.
“And you claim to have no idea how the blaze in the park started when you disrupted your half-sister’s abduction last year?” Kane’s expression of utter disbelief bore into Brandi.
“This isn’t an inquisition, Councilor Stafford. Why are you badgering my granddaughter?” Lloyd asked from his position leaning against the wall.
“The girl hasn’t done any harm, Kane. It’s not her fault she’s gifted. It may be a destructive gift that will scare the shit out of people, but it’s a gift, none the less. Let’s leave her with her father and go home. We all have our own families to tend to. Griffin will protect her from harm.” Mason, ever the mediator, piped up from the sofa.
“Hasn’t done any harm? You say she hasn’t done any harm? She’s been walking around for God knows how long with the power to wreak destruction on us all and she didn’t think we should know? What if that monster had found her before now?”
“My daughter says she didn’t know until recently and I believe her. The Rogue could not know of her ability because her singular episode occurred on the Enclave. And we all know after your vehement defense of the Enclave and its warriors that it isn’t possible that there are any spies in their ranks. You have no problem allowing the power contained in my other child to roam the streets freely without so much as one guard to watch her back.”
Griffin was on a tear and ready to lay into Kane for the way he chose to weave double standards to promote his own causes. Kane hated the fact that the house of Vaughn and the house of Deidrick were united by marriage. He had been pressing for an arranged bonding between their families for months. It was lunacy considering Griffin was trying to abolish the laws that held people to the contracts made by their families without the consent of the individual. Now Kane thought he would whisk away Griffin’s youngest daughter for the purposes of “protecting” her. The conniving old vamp would love to get his hands on a powerful member of the either his or Mason’s family. Luckily for Mason, his daughter was just a baby. Griffin’s girls however, were ripe for the picking.
“You will not use my…”
Griffin’s tirade was cut off by shattering glass and an explosion accompanied by blinding light and dark suffocating smoke. A projectile of some sort had been thrown through Griffin’s office window. He leapt from his perch on the corner of his desk and tackled Brandi to the ground, taking her chair and table next to it out as well. Similar explosions and screams could be heard from other areas of the Council hall.
Mason grabbed Brandi’s shirt and dragged her toward the door. Griffin followed, giving cover to his daughter. Brandi struggled to turn over so she could crawl instead of being hauled out of the room. Griffin could only imagine this was the strike they had all been waiting for. They knew the Rogue hadn’t disappeared. He was just laying low. Striking the Council hall itself was a huge tactical risk. Warriors patrolled the building and grounds around the clock. They would have to strike hard and fast, taking out everyone quickly before back up troops arrived. The Enclave would send an army to aid their leaders and protect the home of their government and history.
Griffin realized his mind was wandering. He struck his head when he hit the ground with force. Brandi looked over her shoulder to make sure he was following and slowed when he wasn’t keeping up the pace.
“Go!” he shouted over the blaring smoke alarms.
Brandi pulled on Mason’s arm and he looked back just as more windows shattered, heralding the arrival of several fully armed men in black fatigues and face masks.
Two sets of hands reached out and snatched Griffin through the door just before a line a bullets was laid in the floor where he’d been creeping along the carpet seconds before. The room spun and nausea threatened Griffin. The door to his office slammed shut. Lloyd and Mason carried him by his arms and Kane was opening the hidden door under the Orientalrug in the assembly room. When it was closed, the boards were so cleverly laid that the door blended seamlessly into the surrounding hardwood floor. There was a door in the office of every Councilman that led to this room. The room was used for closed meetings and entertaining guests in the hall.
In the days when the hall was built,there were still huge concerns about being discovered by the human population. So an escape route was established for the Councilmen in order to preserve continuity of government in the event of an attack. It was still a concern, but in today’s world of popular vampire fiction, if a person claimed to have seen a vampire people would just assume they were crazy. To Griffin’s knowledge this was the first time the tunnel had ever been used.
He realized that his mind had wandered off again because in the blink of an eye he was being carried down the tunnel beneath the building. He watched Kane lock the hidden the door. They hustled along the long corridor that ended at a storage building far enough from the main facility that most people didn’t realize it was part of their property.
Mason immediately called Gage for an update. He put the call on speaker phone.
“What in the hell happened over there?” was Gage’s greeting when he answered the phone. “I’ve got men heading your way. Did we lose anyone?”
Gage’s baritone came through the speaker loud and clear.
Griffin listened to Mason explain what happened but that wasn’t much information. They got out as fast as they could.
“They used flash bang grenades. Damn thing landed right next to Griffin on his desk. I think it rung his bell pretty good. He may have also taken a blow to the head when he took Brandi to the floor. I’m pretty sure he was the only injury in our group.”
Mason looked around the room and froze. Griffin knew something was very wrong.
“They didn’t use live grenades? Are you sure?” Gage sounded puzzled.
“Yes. Shots were fired but no real explosives.”
“Then why is the entire rear of the hall in flames?” Gage wanted to know.
Mason met Griffin’s eyes and swallowed hard.
“Brandi isn’t with us.”
Griffin sat on a fallen tree watching the remains of the Council hall smolder. Soot covered his face and blackened his clothes. His usually crisp white dress shirt hung open, the sleeves rolled to his elbow, his jacket long gone. Samantha sat at his side silently weeping for her fallen twin. Sarah stood behind them fixated on the embers that continued to glow orange in the dark of the night. Ribbons of smoke rose into the air as if to carry the souls of those who had died in the battle to heaven on a soft wind.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Sarah repeated time and again.
Griffin couldn’t agree more. He was surprised he hadn’t been arrested for assaulting his Elder Council member. During their expedient escape from the hall, Kane was the last to enter the secret tunnel. He saw Brandi begin to lose control of her power during the melee. She backed away from the door and told him to get Griffin to safety while she diverted their attackers. Kane thought that was a fine idea since they were likely after her anyway. No reason for everyone to go down in the invasion if they only wanted her. Not only did he leave her behind, but he locked the hidden door so she couldn’t follow them to the out-building. Kane reasoned that her uncontrolled temper would kill them all if they were to get stuck with her in the tunnel.
Griffin overheard Kane explain his decision to an incredulous Gage when they arrived back at the hall after over an hour of being detailed while a battle raged along with the inferno. Six warriors had been lost in the fighting and fire along with an un
known number of rogue invaders. The heart of a father beating wildly in Griffin’s chest took over for his mind and demanded retribution. He knew the attack wasn’t Kane’s fault, but he needed to destroy something and Kane was the nearest target.
To save his own ass,the elder had blocked Brandi’s only escape route out of the destruction. Griffin had beaten the man until he begged for mercy. It had taken Gage and three of his men to bodily carry Griffin away from his target.
When they finally set him free, Griffin entered the burning building to search for Brandi, but he couldn’t get past the point where things had started to collapse. Warriors swarmed the building to put out the fire and shore up the parts that could be saved. The front of the hall, including the chamber room where public sessions were held, and the library survived the fire with minimal damage but the rear of the building that contained the offices and the holding cells were a total loss.
His baby girl was in there somewhere amongst the rubble and he couldn’t reach her. It was unlikely there would even be a body left to claim. Griffin gave in to the misery and cried with his daughter. There was a ripping pain in his chest that nothing would assuage. The place in his heart his children occupied throbbed from the loss. Sobs racked his body and tears ravaged his face. Samantha leaned into her father’s embraces to hold him while the grief had its way.
****
This shit came out of nowhere. Darren was off his rocker and obsessed with his own personal mission. Derek’s absence from The Nest left him out of the loop and scrambling for answers. Darren commandeered a troop of the Master’s lackeys and raided the Council hall. Brandi was on her way there when they parted. Bile rose in Derek’s throat and he choked it back.
“If you could have been found, you would have participated. Darren believes we have a double agent making the rounds. Therefore our plans are of the utmost confidentiality until the last moment,” the Master had told Derek when he asked why he hadn’t been included in the planning of the raid.