He shrugged. “He’s not talking much and we don’t know how much English he knows.”
I eyed him. “Are you guys actually trying to talk to him?”
He looked everywhere else but at me.
“Isaac,” I chided. “The guy’s family was murdered this week.”
His cheeks tinged pink. “Look, we get that. But he’s a Necro.”
“So?” That made no sense. I started searching for my favorite creamer flavors.
“He’s also eighteen,” Isaac added.
“So?” Damn it, they were out. I turned to look up at him.
Isaac’s gaze moved over my face before meeting my eyes again. A small smile hovered around his lips. “Never mind. It’s stupid.”
“Okay.” I let it go, it was too early to try and figure out what he was saying.
We started walking toward the table. “But I should warn you that if you sit next to him, I think someone will blow a gasket.”
“Who?” I sighed
“Lexie, you don’t want to find out,” he answered, his face serious.
“So, all of you?” I guessed. He wouldn’t meet my eyes. I was right.
Zeke looked up from his coffee and spotted me. Asher eyed my tray from beside him. Miles raised his head from his spot across from Zeke. Isaac took a spot next to Miles. Luca looked up from his tray next to Asher and met my eyes again. That sensation rolled over my skin again, at this point it was annoying as fuck. After thinking for half a heartbeat, I decided where to sit.
“Morning, Ally.”
“Morning,” I said as I walked around the table.
“How are you feeling?” Miles asked as Isaac scooted down the bench to make room for me.
“Alright.” I looked down at the spot between Isaac and Miles then said dryly. “Okay, I appreciate that you think my ass is that small, really it’s flattering, but I want to sit down.”
The guys chuckled as Isaac scooted down a little more to make room. I set down my tray and stepped over the bench to sit down, my knee hit Isaac’s side and I lost my balance. I grabbed Miles’s shoulder to steady myself. He reached up and steadied me with his hand on my hip until I sat down.
Zeke and Asher shot a look at Miles who simply ignored them.
“Did you have any dead issues last night?” Luca asked as I settled between the guys.
“Shh,” Isaac told Luca. “Wait till she gets a sip of coffee.”
“Ally girl,” Asher called softly. I looked across the table to him. He passed me a couple of creamers, his fingers brushed mine as he let go.
“Thank you. You are my hero for the day,” I said emphatically as I saw one was hazelnut and the other chocolate, my favorites. The guys chuckled as I made my coffee. I took that first sip and closed my eyes in happiness.
“Now you can talk,” Isaac announced.
“I take it you’re not awake until you’ve had coffee?” Luca asked.
“Yeah, even stepping on that bat this morning didn’t do it,” I grumbled before taking another sip. Oh, heavenly goodness…
“Yeah, Zeke told us about that,” Isaac muttered.
An odd note in his voice let me know that he knew Zeke slept in my room last night and didn’t like it. It was way too early for this… Coffee. The only answer was more coffee. I grabbed the salt to add to my cottage cheese. “It was fuzzy and gross.”
“Then maybe we should get rid of Zeke,” Isaac quipped. The guys chuckled.
I finished with the salt and looked up at Zeke. His usual five-o’clock shadow was a beard still. “Fuzzy yes, but not gross.” I turned back to Isaac. “We keep him.”
“I take it you haven’t smelled him after a workout.” Asher said. Everyone chuckled but Zeke.
“Very funny,” he muttered under his breath as he took a drink of his coffee.
I smiled to myself as I mixed in the salt. “Has the doctor said Ethan can go home yet?”
“I’m surprised you want to leave so quickly,” Luca said. “I’m personally wanting to stick around and have a word with a few of the Witch’s Council.”
I looked up and met his eyes. “If it was just me, yeah. But it’s not.”
He gave me a slow nod of understanding. “That makes sense.”
Luca’s eyes ran over the guys. “But none of you are magic users. Why are you in the middle of this?”
“We’re family,” Miles said as his measuring gaze ran over Luca.
“Louis is in a meeting right now but he also wants to have a talk with both of us.” Luca glanced at the guys. “With just us.”
Zeke’s shoulders became tense. Miles started tapping out that staccato rhythm. Both Isaac and Asher eyed Luca.
“He is also taking me out tonight for something.” I ignored the others as I started eating my breakfast.
Luca straightened. “Did he say where?”
I shook my head and kept eating as a tense silence fell.
Luca eyed the guys. “So… how long have you guys been friends with Lexie?” There was something about his voice that didn’t sit well with me. It was almost as if Luca was getting protective of me. Poor guy didn’t realize I was the safest person in the building. And I wasn’t the only one to hear it. Zeke and Asher both sat up straighter.
“Almost a year now,” I said in a cheerful voice as I met Asher’s gaze.
He shook his head and pressed his lips into a thin line, but otherwise stayed quiet.
“And everyone seems to have a nickname for you?” Luca asked.
“Yeah, I have nicknames for them too,” I countered, trying to get the guys to be a bit friendlier.
“Especially when she’s pissed,” Isaac chimed in, catching on to what I was trying to do. “Those get real colorful.”
I shook my head and stabbed my fork into a piece of melon.
“Has anyone seen Claire?” Asher asked. “I’m getting worried.”
“Yeah. A couple of nights ago, she said she wanted to start traveling back, spreading the word on Spring Mountain,” I said, being cryptic. I didn’t know Luca and I wasn’t about to tell him about my link to the Veil.
“Who is Claire? Another Necro?” Luca asked.
“Yeah, she is. She’s also dead,” I answered dryly.
Luca raised an eyebrow then let the subject drop.
Phones went off around the cafeteria. People began running out, shouting to each other as they did so.
We stayed put, our phones hadn’t gone off. There was a building roar coming down the stairs. I got to my feet.
“Don’t even think about it,” Zeke snapped as he bolted to his feet with the others. I stopped at the doorway to watch as almost everyone ran out the runed door. The conference room opened, Willow and Bella hurried toward the door.
Louis came out at a jog and came over to us. “We found their headquarters.”
Chapter 20
July 18th, Wednesday Afternoon
I couldn’t stop pacing. You’d think if our side was going to raid the Witch’s Council’s hide-out they’d take us. But, no. We were stuck here, under guard of a couple of Bella and Ink’s tiger shifters. I’d already tried to make a break for it. One of them only picked me up off my feet but it pissed the guys off in the process. After already almost causing a fist fight, I figured I’d better stop trying to sneak out of here. Behaving wasn’t something I was good at.
“Beautiful, sit down,” Ethan said from the side of his bed.
I turned back to him. His color was better, the bags almost gone. Even some of the strain around his face was easing. “How’re you feeling?”
“Better.” He gave me a smile. “The doc said he’d be able to check me out this afternoon.”
“Then we might be able to make it home tonight,” Miles said.
“Good,” Zeke muttered.
Miles eyed Zeke. “You got some sleep last night.”
Zeke glared at Miles, silently telling him to drop it.
A phone rang. Everyone checked.
“Yeah?” One of
the guards answered his phone. “We’ll head out now.” He tucked his phone into his pocket before turning back to us. “We can head out; the building is clear now. Dozer, stay with Ethan.”
I didn’t bother to wait, I ran through the door and down the hall. The others cursed and hurried to catch up. Even Luca met us at the door and followed.
The drive out to meet the others seemed longer than it should have been. We drove down a long stretch of road alongside the Mississippi. We passed homes into an area that was rather populated by families. How did they manage to raid the building without norms being in the line of fire?
We parked near a large parking structure and climbed out. The six story buildings were enormous. Even bigger than the safe-house. Windows were still intact, mostly on the top four floors of one building. The windows on the other cement building were metal shutters with no glass. A rusted metal door opened. Louis stood in the doorway, waiting, his face drawn.
We didn’t waste time, we went straight to him.
“What happened?” Luca asked as soon as we were within earshot.
Louis swallowed hard. “We found most of the patients from the hospital.”
His dire tone had my stomach knotting. “Are they okay?”
He shook his head and led the way inside. We walked down a large hall toward a giant set of stairs. “Most are like David. Their channels burned and their brain damaged.”
Everyone but Miles and Luca cursed.
Louis led us into a large, long, open part of the building. It was almost the size of a production floor in a factory. Only here… sheets were hung to create sections in the cement room. Gurneys and tables sat in each. Some had sheets, some were bare. But every one had restraints and medical equipment. Horror crawled through me as we walked down the long corridor, passing row after row. Bloodstained sheets were in more than a few. What the hell did they do here? Our people were everywhere. Shapeshifters, magic users, it didn’t matter. They worked together to gently get the last few tortured people out of the building. Most were in hospital gowns, their eyes dead. Their faces blank as if no one was home. Rage began to build in my heart. Who could fucking do this? Even with all the activity the place was eerily quiet, as if even the building was horrified by the memory of what happened here.
We were walking by one sectioned off area near the middle when something caught my eye. I walked into the curtained off section and bent down. It was the shirt Ethan was wearing the night they took him, cut and thrown into the corner like trash. There was a clatter as something fell out of the fabric. His phone. Still turned off. Isaac moved around me and picked it up. His face was hard, his eyes boiling as they met mine. We wanted whomever did this to him.
We walked out of the section and followed Louis further down. That chill ran down my neck. I stopped dead in my tracks. “How many died?”
Louis stopped and took a deep breath before turning to me. “Forty-three.”
My stomach rolled. “They’re still here?”
He nodded.
I swallowed hard and nodded back. Louis lead the way to the group of damaged ghosts in the far corner of the building. Some of them had dead eyes, some of them were younger than me. My heart burned as I looked at all of them. Tears filled my eyes. “Why the fuck did they do this?”
“From what we’ve found so far, it looks like they were experimenting on norms,” Louis said, his dark eyes haunted.
My heart dropped. Human experimentation? That was… just…
“But we’ll know more when we go through their files upstairs.” Louis’s voice had an edge. “Move them on, Lexie. Give them peace.”
Luca’s gaze snapped to us.
My hands shook as I remembered David. “You don’t get it. They’re fucked up down to the soul.”
Louis met my eyes again.
“David barely recognized his mother,” I explained. “I practically had to push him through the door to move him on.”
“What are you talking about?” Luca demanded, his accent thick as he stepped closer to Louis and I. “You said this Veil was closed and that’s why the dead weren’t moving on?”
Shit. I turned, looked up and met Luca’s eyes. “I have a link to the Veil. I’m the only way to move the dead on to the Veil right now.”
Luca said something in Italian; it sounded like cursing to me. “Did you know that is what got my family killed?”
My heart dropped. “What?”
Louis stepped forward. “Luca, it’s not her fault. She’s not responsible for what happened.”
Luca stepped closer forcing me to tilt my head back. Movement behind me caught Luca’s eye. But his gaze quickly moved back to me. “They wanted my father to create a link to this Veil. They tortured my mother and sisters over it. He didn’t even know what they were talking about.”
Oh God… “I’m sorry.” His family died because of… guilt crashed down on me. They wanted the link… three weeks… “I’m so sorry.” All because I told Serena to fuck off.
Louis moved him back from me and further away from the group of souls. He started speaking to him in Italian.
Luca answered back in the same language then turned and stormed off.
Louis said something in French, cursing I’d bet. He turned back to the souls still staring off into oblivion. Still, they deserved to move on after all they’d been through.
“Do it,” Louis sighed.
Putting all my emotions behind a door, I took a deep breath and stepped forward. This wasn’t going to be easy. I called my will and got to work.
After a heart wrenching trip to the Veil, where I had to guide and then almost push every soul through their door. I came out of the Veil with a tight throat and burning eyes. Asher noticed and distracted Luca and Louis long enough for me to get control over myself again. Louis said there was more work to do.
And now, three hours later, I flipped another page of the file and fought the bile that moved up into the back of my throat. A picture of a seven-year-old girl looked up at me. Big blue eyes, long straight thick blonde hair and a pretty face. It would be a nice picture, if the girl’s eyes weren’t distant and unseeing. Her name was Stella. A chill ran down my spine as I moved past the picture and read the file.
Experiment was a success. Subject 72 has shown remarkable skill in adapting to her new higher awareness. While she doesn’t speak much, she’s dutiful in listening to and carrying out orders.
Most success has been found among the younger of our subjects. Perhaps there’s a correlation between adapting and age? Recommend moving her to a more stable facility for further experimentation and testing.
Experimenting. That’s what they called it. Not forcing enough energy into a norm to blast open their channels in hope that they would gain some natural ability. Though what about that would you call natural? I snapped the file shut. We’d been going through them for hours. I stretched my arms above my head and watched as Willow closed the file in her hands and then slipped it into her case. I’d noticed her doing that several times already.
This time I asked. “What are the files you keep taking?”
Willow reached for another file from the dwindling pile. “The files of those who we found alive today. I’m hoping it’ll help the doctors to know what happened to them.”
I scoffed. “But we don’t know what happened to them. Not one file has said what they did, or used. We’re only guessing that they managed to gather enough energy to blast it through someone.”
Willow met my gaze. “I know, it’s extremely frustrating. Why don’t you take a break? There’s no reason you can’t.”
Fuck it. I got to my feet and headed for the stairs and went down. Zeke had needed to take a walk about ten minutes ago. He was so angry that he had to go or he was going to break something. Someone should check on him. I headed downstairs.
I didn’t find Zeke. I found Luca. He was staring out a window on the third floor. Deciding to leave him be I started back down the stairs.
“Y
ou can’t sneak up on a Necro.” Luca broke the silence. “Especially if you’re one too.”
I sighed as I turned around. “I figured.”
He turned away from the window and ran his gaze over me. “I shouldn’t have blamed you earlier.” He came closer. That sensation of fingertips running over my skin grew stronger. “You’re not at fault. You didn’t break into our home. You didn’t tie up my family and you didn’t torture them.”
I shook my head as my eyes burned. “It is my fault.”
He raised an eyebrow.
He had a right to know who really killed his family. “All of this is my fault. I had been trying to learn from a witch back home, but I kept getting lied to and stonewalled.” I swallowed hard as guilt clawed through that locked door and tore at me again. “Three weeks ago, I cut ties.”
His eyes filled with understanding. “Three weeks ago they went to Florida.”
I nodded.
His eyes ran over me then met mine again. “Did you know that would happen?”
“No.”
“Then it’s not your fault,” he said, his voice lowering. “You might have put this into motion, but they are the ones who decided to do this. And every day, they’ve made the decision to continue.”
Okay, that made sense but still… “How can you not blame me?”
“Because you’re not at fault. Am I angry? Yes. But not at you.”
I didn’t know what else to say.
He clenched and unclenched his jaw. “They’re going to come after you. Maybe not now, but eventually. And they won’t take no for an answer.”
“That’s usually when I say ‘fuck no,’” I bit out.
The corner of his mouth lifted as he pulled a small card out of his pocket. “When they come, call me.” He handed it to me. “I’ll be on the next plane.” He walked past me and started up the stairs back toward the offices.
I looked down at the card, it was a phone number and email address. Well… that didn’t go the way I thought it would. I traced the edge of the card as emotions fought it out inside me. It seemed like it was my fault but I didn’t know this would happen. Were Asher and Luca right? I didn’t know. I shoved everything back behind that door again before I tucked the card in my wallet and headed down the stairs.
Secrets From the Grave (The Veil Diaries Book 6) Page 29