Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2)

by Kace, Angeline

  Vasek stares at us, but I don’t care. He can tell Zladislov whatever he wants after this meeting. Zladislov is going to hear about us one way or another. And Brooke and I will deal with it when we get there.

  She looks at me. “Thank you. Kaitlynn wanted to do more with my hair, but I told her to do what she could with bobby pins and get it over with.” She fusses uneasily with her hair.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you,” I promise, grabbing her shoulders. “Let’s go. It’s cold.”

  We get into the cars and head to the meeting, which is in an eighteenth-century church renovated into a meeting hall and amphitheater. The Commission rents it out occasionally, but the property has always belonged to them.

  The church was an easy explanation for why large amounts of people congregate here regularly. All Commissioner business is handled here as Philadelphia has one of the highest concentrations of Pijawikas in America. There’s even a Croatian consulate here, but they don’t know they’re catering mostly to nonhumans.

  We’re cutting it close to the meeting time when we arrive. Ace is bringing Cila in from a back entrance Vasek told us about, so they have to park a little more than a block away to avoid being seen.

  Annette wasn’t happy about not coming along with Brooke, but I can’t risk her making a scene. It’s inevitable if she watches her daughter go into the meeting and she can’t go with her.

  A few people are still entering as we make our way inside. A stout man stops us and asks for our names. After Vasek mentions Brooke, the man points us to a side door down the curved hall. The majority of the building is the amphitheater, the hall circling around it.

  We pass a set of open double doors on the way to Brooke’s entrance. The amphitheater is packed. If things don’t go our way, this could be the biggest upset we’ve had since Zladislov took the Head of the Commission. And all these people know it could turn out this way. They know it’s not simply a meeting for a girl to be punished from killing someone znaked.

  I also notice the light fixtures in the ceiling. A walkway leads from a door to allow maintenance to get to the equipment. If I can find it, I can watch the meeting from up there.

  Emerik and his father approach the doors as we pass, Emerik glaring at us.

  Brooke stops and waits for him to come out into the hall. She steps closer to him and whispers, “We’re not so different, are we? But if you hate me, does that mean you hate yourself?” She’s taunting him.

  This could be dangerous, and I consider pulling her away, but I want to see what she has planned.

  Emerik’s glare deepens and he pulls his upper lip into a sneer.

  I intervene then, edging closer to her and stepping sideways between them.

  Emerik leans around me and growls at her. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, little girl. I will destroy you and your father.”

  I can’t believe she’s doing this.

  Brooke grins boldly. “There’s no need for anyone to be destroyed. Just make sure your dad keeps his vote voided, and we’re all good.”

  “I will not be ordered to do anything,” Orell says.

  Brooke turns her attention to Orell for the first time. “I’m not ordering anything. It’s blackmail. Big difference.” She turns away from them and struts down the curved hallway toward her doors.

  I turn to follow.

  When we reach the closed doors, Brooke faces me. She’s shaken. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  I grasp her shoulders. “Yes, you should’ve. We need Orell to void his vote, and you may have gotten us that.”

  I tuck her close to my chest and rub her back, trying to soothe her. She has so many things to be afraid of. I wish I could protect her from all of them.

  “We’ll wait here until they call for her,” Vasek says. “When they do, I’ll go in with her.”

  I nod at him, thankful. I can’t go in with her, but at least she won’t be going in alone. “I love you,” I whisper in Brooke’s ear. “I will be in there. Remember, I always keep my word.”

  She looks at me, doubt mixing with hope.

  She didn’t see the lights hanging in the rafters, then.

  But I did.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Brooke

  Vasek is next to me as I walk down a long, dark corridor. When we emerge into the light, I’m walking to the center of a dropped stage with seats rising all around me. The people sitting in them are dressed as if they expected a grand ball rather than an inquisition.

  Bright lights shine down from the ceiling, so I shield my eyes. I get a better look around and find Abdul-Hakeem, Sandor, and Chen sitting in thronelike chairs on a raised platform with four other men.

  The Commission.

  I search the room for my dad as Vasek guides me to a stool in the center of the circular floor. It’s like I’m a gladiator walking out to my final battle, the crowd is ready to cheer on my demise, and the kings are staring me down, making my skin crawl with each step I take toward my final doom.

  It’s not a comfortable feeling.

  I wish Mirko were walking beside me.

  The floor creaks with my final steps and then again as I put my weight on the stool. The amphitheater smells old. Aged wood and Victorian fabrics. Dust twirls in the hot lights.

  “Are you all right?” Vasek asks.

  “Not really, but I can’t turn back now, can I?”

  He frowns. “No, you cannot.” He squeezes my shoulder and then exits the way we came in.

  My heart races.

  He’s leaving me.

  I’m alone.

  They’re going to release the lions and then I’m dead.

  I take a deep breath. They are not sending in lions. Pijawikas maybe, but not lions.

  That’s not soothing in the least.

  I shield my eyes again and look up to the Commissioners. My dad is behind them, but he’s not sitting in a throne-chair. He’s sitting in a weird metal chair, some contraption around his neck, chains extending from it connected to the chair.

  He’s chained to the chair by a collar.

  What the hell is going on?

  A new fear trickles up my spine like a cold draft wafting through. Neither one of us is getting out of here alive.

  My stomach turns.

  I peer over to the door I came in through, but all I see is a black hole. I don’t care, though. There’s an exit there, and I’m tempted to make a run for it, tempted to run into oblivion to get out of here.

  I’ve almost convinced myself to run when a man speaks. The loud boom echoes down from the arched ceiling. “State your name.”

  “My …” I clear my throat. “My name is Brooke Keller.”

  “And tell us why you think you’re here.”

  I squint to see who’s speaking.

  Pinstripes.

  It’s Ivan. His eyebrows are dark and match his black hair, which is long on top and short on the sides. He’s tailored, down to the clean sideburns that travel the length of his ears.

  Do they want to know what I suspect I’m here for, or what the paper calling me here said? I go with the safer one. “Jelena kidnapped me, we fought, and I killed her to protect myself.”

  “Did you know at the time that Jelena was znaked and safe from threats of death?”

  I look at my dad. How much is too much?

  He nods slightly.

  “Yes, but at the time, I was only thinking about staying alive.”

  “So you killed her knowing you shouldn’t?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “That is all I asked for.” Ivan’s a jerk.

  “But there’s more to it,” I argue. If I don’t say everything I can, I may never get another chance.

  Ivan raises his hand as if to silence me.

  My dad shakes his head.

  I clamp my mouth closed.

  Should I apologize?

  Does arguing make me look like a threat?

  No, I’m the one on trial here. They shoul
d allow me to tell my whole story.

  Ivan lowers his arm and continues. “Who struck who first?”

  “Jelena threw me from the car, then kicked me. She struck me first.”

  Ivan’s gaze drops to something in front of him. A paper, maybe?

  “Dikan tells us you used Sanjam on Jelena’s driver, causing him to crash the vehicle. Is this what happened?”

  “They kidnapped me by threatening my best friend. Dikan had his fangs to her throat and then they kept me locked in a small room. I tried to escape, but they beat me and dragged me back. It was my only opportunity to get away.” No more yes or no first. I am going to explain my version of events.

  “Were you aware that the driver was a Pijawika before breaching his mind?” Ivan asks.

  I blink, trying to figure out where he’s going with this.

  “I figured he was.” Jelena surrounded herself with only Pijawikas.

  “And you were still certain you would breach his mind?” Ivan’s looking at me with interest now. This could be a good thing. My dad said if he found me interesting, he would be more likely to vote my way. But are my answers making me appear as a threat?

  I bank on interesting. “I have strong Sanjam.” I shrug. I’m not sure how else I can explain it.

  “Like your father?” Ivan asks and looks back over his shoulder at my dad.

  I think so. Maybe. “I’m not sure. I haven’t known him for very long.” That’s the truth.

  “What about your mother? What of her powers?”

  He knows very well my mom doesn’t have any powers.

  I fight with myself to keep my gaze locked to his.

  Is he really going to make me say it?

  He’s silent, waiting for me to answer.

  Yes. He is going to make me say it, and I hate him even more for how he’s playing this game. “My mother is a human.”

  Gasps echo through the crowd.

  I hold my breath.

  Chen smiles.

  I hate him too.

  “This would make you a melez,” Ivan states the obvious.

  I don’t answer because that wasn’t a question. I grind my teeth instead. I’m scared, but I’m also angry and frustrated.

  Sandor leans over and says something to Ivan. When he pulls away, Ivan stares at me, glances at Sandor, and then studies me again.

  “And yet, you have powers, is that right?”

  “I have Nestati.”

  “And Nestati is what allows you to skip space?” Ivan tilts his head. He’s engrossed now.

  “I think it is.”

  Ivan stands and looks up to the higher seats. “Gretchen,” he yells. “Come forward.”

  A lady with crimson hair in a black dress stands and moves to the aisle. She makes her way down the steps to the Commissioners, her main a traveling flame fanning out behind her.

  She bows to him as she approaches.

  Crap! I forgot to bow when I came in. Does that say “threat”?

  “You have Nestati, don’t you, dear?” Ivan asks her when she stands up.

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Can you skip space, or must you walk in order to move?” He makes a walking motion with two of his fingers, moving them in front of her.

  “I walk,” she answers.

  “Thank you,” Ivan says. “You are dismissed.”

  She bows to him again, lifts the hem of her dress, and hustles up the stairs back to her seat.

  Ivan comes back and sits down. “How is it that she cannot skip space, but you—a melez—can?”

  “I don’t know, sir.” He’s looking at me like I’m a threat now, so I add the “sir.”

  Appear meek. Appear meek.

  I slump my shoulders, trying to make myself smaller.

  “What else can you do?” he asks like he’s interested, but I still don’t like the way he’s appraising me.

  “I think that’s it, sir.” What my dad taught me isn’t technically a power.

  “You think?”

  “Well, all of this is new to me.”

  Sandor leans over again, but Ivan keeps his eyes on me.

  I’m squinting to keep the light out of my eyes, but I manage to narrow them further at Sandor. If he has questions for me, why doesn’t he ask me himself?

  When Sandor’s done speaking, Ivan nods. “You are a melez who has powers and has killed not only once but twice, is that correct?”

  Not really, but I’m not going to mention the man who killed David. I kind of count that one. At least I hope that’s the one he’s unaware of. “The first one was sent to kidnap me, and he had my friend by the throat. I did what I could to save him.”

  Ivan looks at Sandor, who nods as if my answer was satisfactory. Ivan turns back to me. “Where do you see yourself fitting in our world?”

  “I don’t need to fit in anywhere, sir. I would just like to be left alone.”

  Chen chuckles. When he finishes, Ivan continues. “Are you aware that a Pijawika mixing or having relations with a human is forbidden?” He asks it like I’m the one who did it.

  This is his segue back to my dad.

  Does this mean his mind is already made up about me? “After Jelena tried to kidnap me the first time, I learned that you existed and that I was in trouble because of who my parents are.”

  He tilts his head at me again, this time to the left. “So you were unaware of what you were before Jelena came for you?”

  “Yes.” Finally something’s going my way.

  Ivan considers this for a moment. It feels like minutes before he speaks again. My hands sweat and perspiration breaks out above my lip from the heat of the lights.

  Or maybe anxiety? Could be both.

  “But now you know about us, you know what you are, and you know that the conduct taken to make a melez is forbidden by our kind.” He’s made his final conclusion.

  I step off the stool and rush forward. “I’m not the only melez from the Commission.”

  Orell glares at me, so I speak fast. “Sandor made twins with a human. I have a witness. Their mother.”

  The crowd roars.

  Orell’s face relaxes.

  Yeah, buddy. I kept my end, now you keep yours.

  “Witnesses are not allowed,” Abdul-Hakeem growls over the echo from the stunned onlookers.

  I move forward. “But it’s true and you need to hear it! And he did it way before my mom and dad made me.” Telling them Sandor was the first to break the rule somehow feels like it will give us an edge.

  Sandor stands. “Sit down! Witnesses are not allowed. We have heard what we came to hear.”

  “No you haven’t—”

  “Sit down!” Ivan barks, and the audience quiets.

  My eyes narrow and shift from one Commissioner to the next. How can they do this to me? To my dad? To anybody? It’s completely unfair.

  Anger warms my stomach. They think they’re going to decide our fates by asking me what, like, five questions?

  I don’t think so.

  Wrath swells inside of me, so hot and fierce, I’m glaring at the Commissioners and breathing deeply out of my nose.

  I recall what it felt like when my dad used his special Sanjam on me to keep me from fighting the SWAT team of Pijawikas who came to arrest him.

  I rotate my mind’s polarity. When I think I have it, I yell, “No! You sit down!”

  Sandor sits.

  Holy shit!

  I’m actually using my dad’s special Sanjam on him. I expand it from Sandor to the rest of the Commissioners, then beyond them and out in a circle like a ripple of water, touching everyone within the room. My teeth clench with how much work it is.

  Once it’s as far as I can make it go, I tighten it and think about how I don’t want them to breathe. It’s not the same way I did it to Zack at The Base—there’s no pain added within it. I simply want them to know that I am controlling their means to life.

  The same thing they’re trying to do to me.

  My hands shake wit
h the exertion I’m extending over the room.

  I’m scared. If they weren’t convinced before that I was a threat, they will be now. But I already have them. I can’t let them go yet.

  “Vasek!” I yell. “Bring her in!”

  I’m not sure how I’m going to pull this back enough so Vasek can get Cila in here, but I’m going to have to figure it out on the fly.

  I hope.

  My breathing is labored, so I let go of everyone’s breath but keep them frozen. My eyes meet Abdul-Hakeem’s. His face is like stone, but fury burns within his eyes.

  It frightens me. I wobble backwards and hit the top of my thighs against the stool.

  I sit on it, relieved that I no longer have to hold myself up.

  Abdul-Hakeem makes me nervous in a way the other Commissioners don’t. No wonder Chen turns to him to get things done.

  Abdul-Hakeem pushes against my hold on him. He’s fighting me.

  I focus on keeping my polarity the way it needs to be so he can’t push me out. With his unintentional help, I tuck and fold his will into a small crevice in the back of his mind. If I can’t get him to fear me, maybe I can get him to respect me enough as an enemy to think twice before he retaliates later.

  Ivan pulls and tugs on my hold over him, but not in an aggressive way or a panicked way like Abdul-Hakeem. It’s full of wonder, as if he is systematically testing my limits. I move my will forward and relax over him enough that he smiles.

  I think he can appreciate what I’m doing.

  I smile back because that’s good for me. Plus, now I think I know how to control this thing on a micro and macro level at the same time.

  Ivan tugs again, similar to how a child tugs the string of a balloon as it floats away.

  I do a mental skip across the line he tugged and then I stop and imagine a feather tickling his face.

  He twitches his nose and his eyes light up.

  I nod at him, letting him know I did that on purpose.

  I register a presence at the side door and relax my will. I think it’s a human.

  Cila. Good.

  “It’s okay, Cila. Come on over here,” I try to say reassuringly. She won’t understand me, but she’ll hear it in my tone. I’m glad Vasek isn’t with her because I don’t think I could pull back this Sanjam thing enough for him too.

  Cila limps over to me. I point to the Commission. “Tell them,” I say and nod my head.