Gavin chuckled. “Ah, Isabel, you’re still naive… I thought you would’ve learned by now, but you’re still your old gullible self, how amazing!”
“You tell me, now!” Isabel hissed, reaching out and grabbing Gavin by the collar. “What’s the council’s next move?!” Gavin’s face drooped to a scowl. Their eyes locked on like magnets. Isabel figured she’d have to do a little bit more if she wanted him to talk. She found herself focusing on an empty space in the air between them, her hands slowly retreating from his collar and latching onto his neck. Gavin didn’t wince. Eyes narrowed and he got a vertical wrinkle between his eyebrows. His lips pursed slightly.
“Home, home,” he breathed. Isabel stared brazenly into his eyes.
“Home?” she said.
“Home, home,” he hissed. “Home is where the heart is.”
Isabel’s hands shook. She knew she had him right where she wanted him. She couldn’t lose her focus; she had to hold on. At the far end of the dungeon Oz lay with his eyes clenched shut. Little did Isabel know that he was right there with her. “What home?” Isabel asked, her grip around Gavin’s neck tightening. “Gavin, what home?”
“Get off me!” he snarled. Isabel’s arms fell limp to her side. Suddenly the whole dungeon fell silent. For a moment, she knew she had him, but then it all dwindled away for no apparent reason. Isabel turned around, her eyes scanning the place. Oz was still tucked away somewhere; she was glad no one could see him. “Oh, Isabel, did you really think it was that simple?” Gavin asked, raising an eyebrow at her. His lips curved to a menacing smile, and when Isabel tried to reel him in again, he snapped his fingers repeatedly, ordering her to stop. “We don’t have to do this, you don’t have to do this,” he said, shaking his head frantically. “You’re getting to me, you’re getting to me.”
“Home is where the heart is?” Isabel asked, popping her head in through the gap between the iron bars of his cell. “Tell me, what is your secret?”
“Isabel, stop, you don’t want to do this… you know you don’t, you still care about me and we both know it,” he said, his eyes boring into hers. His voice softened and his grip on the iron bars loosened; for a second, Isabel thought she would give into his orders. Her mind conjured up images of the two of them together; Gavin’s arms were around her, he was cradling her to sleep. She thought she would melt into his arms, but then she snapped out of it. Like a slap across the face, Isabel felt a gush of cold air hit her, but it wasn’t coming from outside. She knew it was Oz. He was the one controlling her.
“I won’t pity you,” she snarled. “That’s enough.”
Gavin shot her a glare before he retreated back into his cell. He crawled up into a fetal position and started cradling himself to sleep. Isabel rose to her feet and climbed out of the cell, and when the coast was clear, Oz followed her. “Well, what now?” Isabel asked, her eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t know what to make of this.”
“Neither do I,” Oz said, slamming the trapdoor shut. “You did a good job, though, I’m proud of you.”
“Not good enough, apparently,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Or else we would’ve had more information by now.”
“Hey, just cut yourself some slack, okay? Even the two of us combined couldn’t control him… but we almost had him, maybe next time…”
“There won’t be a next time, don’t you see?” Isabel asked, a look of frustration on her face. “The council are going to break in eventually… they’re probably plotting right now.”
“Which is why Presten and Ava have a job to do… they’re on their way right now,” Oz said, brushing a hand through Isabel’s hair. “I don’t want you to worry, Isabel, just be patient. Everything will fall into place.” But Isabel wasn’t listening. In her mind’s eyes, she could see Gavin’s face shining in the dimness of the cells, mouthing the words “home is where the heart is” to her. She thought about what that could mean. She thought about whether he was just trying to fuck with her. Gavin repulsed her and all she wanted right now was to get rid of him. “Isabel, I think you should get some rest.” Oz’s voice seeped into her consciousness.
“Yeah, you’re right,” she said, sighing. “I think I just need to lie down for a while.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked, his lips coming to a smile.
“I think— I think I just need to be alone.”
Isabel ran for the stairs. She felt like she was going to hurl. She swung the door to her room open and collapsed into bed, her mind racing with a million thoughts at once. At that point, she was filled with doubt. She heard a knock at her door; she knew it would be Oz. But she decided she just wanted to be alone. She rolled over away from the door and the first thing she saw was the pile of books from last night. Immediately, she grabbed them off the floor and started skimming through them. The Earth and the Supernatural, one of them read, but the rest were untitled. “Well, what do we have here?” she asked herself as she flipped the book open. Deep down, she was scared to even look at it. This literary work taps into the role of the supernatural in shaping the natural world we know today… Isabel clutched the book in her hands for a moment before she flipped it open again. Shapeshifters, vampires, the vampire council and the succubi; it was all in this book. The origin of vampires, angels and shapeshifters, one of the chapter titles read. “Looks like I’ll be up all night reading this,” Isabel thought. Oz continued to knock on her door and she continued to ignore him.
CHAPTER 6
Oz sat by the fireplace, not moving. His eyes were fixated on the rising flames, and when he heard a knock at the mansion door, he shot up, startled, thinking it must be Presten and Ava. “Welcome back,” he said, his lips coming to a smile the second he saw them standing in the doorway. Behind him stood four or five strangers, who Oz immediately recognized as fellow angels and succubi. “Hello,” he said graciously. “Come on in.”
“See, I told you we wouldn’t disappoint you,” Ava said playfully. “No one knew it was us and we managed to rally up some allies, too.”
“Hi,” one of them said, peering at Presten through her bangs. He shook her hand and smiled at her, and it wasn’t long before she realized she needed to introduce herself. “I’m Nadia, a succubus from a small town here in France.”
“Hello, Nadia,” Presten said. But he was too distracted. The rest of them stared at him with wide eyes, like little kids meeting their teacher on the first day of school. “It’s nice to meet you all,” he said finally. “Are you all succubi?” They nodded in robotic motion. Presten didn’t know if this was a sign of discipline, respect, or just weak character. “Where’s Isabel?” he asked, looking around.
“Isabel has been in her room for quite some time now,” Oz said, his eyes dropping to the floor. “I don’t know what’s with her. She seems… distracted.” The truth was, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He just wanted to crawl into bed with her, pull her close. But she was too “in her head” to even talk to him right now.
“Did anything happen?” Ava asked eagerly. “Did she talk to Gavin?”
“Home is where the heart is,” Oz said, avoiding eye contact. “Does that saying ring any bells for you?”
Ava shook her head. “No,” she said. There was a pause. “The vampires are still working on renovating the house. They’re still assigning everyone their rooms, still taking care of their injured. I would say we still have time.”
“That’s… optimistic,” Oz said, seemingly distracted. “Let’s not rely on that thought. I think it would be best if we plan ahead.”
“You’re right,” Ava said, folding both her arms across her chest. “Do you think we should go check on Isabel?” she asked.
“I tried, but she won’t answer the door,” he said. “But anyway, right now, we need to assign everyone their rooms. Ava, where would you like to stay?”
“I think it’s about time I stayed in the tower,” she said teasingly. The others stared back blankly. “Right, not a time for jokes?”
> “Most certainly not.”
“Alright, I think we should spread out; Presten and Isabel already have rooms next to the dungeon… you and me, we can move a bit higher up,” she said.
“Sounds about right,” Oz said, folding both of his arms across his chest and shifting his weight to one leg. “Oh, hey, look who decided to crawl out of their cave.” Isabel smiled at him as she thumped her way down the hall. Her feet were clammy against the hardwood floorboards, but she couldn’t be bothered to put any shoes on.
“Hello,” she said, a smile plastered to her face. Her eyes immediately went to the five strangers standing next to Ava and she nodded at them graciously. “I see Ava has brought along some allies, welcome,” she said.
“Where have you been?” Presten asked, walking over to her.
“I’ve been reading,” Isabel said. “Oz, those books we found… I skimmed through them a little bit.”
“Gavin’s memoirs?” he asked, his eyes wide.
“No, I’ve left those till the end,” she said, flashing him a smirk. “I went through some history books, here, check this out.” She threw him the leather-bound book she had been reading for the past couple of hours. “This is… this is pretty interesting stuff. Did you know that Presten and my names are written in there?” she asked, a glimmer in her eyes.
“Of course they are! They don’t call them prophecies for nothing,” Oz said, flipping through the book without actually reading it. Isabel wondered why he was so disinterested. “Does it say anything about the final battle?” he asked.
Isabel felt her stomach churn at the mentioning of a final battle. “I don’t know, I haven’t come across anything about that just yet,” she said, shaking her head. Deep down, she didn’t really want to know. “Oz, I really think we should go back and look for that key.”
“I think we should… but first, let’s go down and see how the hostages are,” he said, nodding towards the trapdoor. It looked so ominous, as if something would spring out of it at any second.
“We should feed them,” Isabel said to Ava and Presten.
“It’s your turn,” Ava said slyly. “Just be careful… Gavin’s an aggressive one.”
“You’re telling me,” Isabel said, turning to look at Oz. But he was already gone. A few minutes later he came back with no less than four trays of food, stacked on top of each other. Isabel slid down the trapdoor and walked to Gavin’s cell. She just wanted to get this over with. After their last confrontation, Isabel was weary of how he’d react to her presence. Stop being so scared of him, what could he possibly do? She needed to stop being ridiculous. Isabel had Gavin right where she wanted him; she knew she had the upper hand. As she walked quietly to his cell she realized he was asleep, so she just set the tray down on the floor next to him and stared at his black mass of a body for a while before turning to leave. “Wait, what?” she whispered to herself, turning to look at him again. In the darkness, she caught a glimpse of a tiny glint on Gavin’s chest. She moved in closer, not sure if what she was seeing was real or just a figment of her imagination. She moved in closer and realized it was a key. Holy shit.
“Isabel, Isabel,” Oz whispered from the other side of the cells. Isabel jumped. She couldn’t let Gavin hear him. She crouched down and focused all her powers towards Oz; maybe, just maybe, she could get through to him.
Oz, Oz, listen to me, can you hear me? I’m inside your head.
The silence was too dense to bear. Somehow, Isabel was trying to penetrate this silence without being heard. I can hear you, Oz came through. For a moment Isabel couldn’t believe this actually worked. Had she been capable of telepathy all along?
Alright, I’m going to need you to hide… I think I found what we were looking for. She clenched her eyes and waited for an answer, but when she never got one, she figured Oz already got the message. The air was so still that even the sound of Oz’s breathing went unheard. She shouldered her way through the iron bars, her eyes still fixated on the small glittery spot on Gavin’s chest. The floor creaked beneath her and she wondered if Gavin would wake up. She wondered if any of the vampires would wake up. They all looked so weak. By the looks of it, some of them wouldn’t make it through the night. But Isabel needed them to hang in there; she needed to use them as bait for the council. Gavin wasn’t moving. His chest was rising and falling to the beat of his breath and when Isabel got close enough, she made sure that this was the key she was looking for. If Gavin kept it secure around his neck, then it must be valuable. She reached out and grabbed it, slowly pulling it off his neck. The rope brushed up against his skin and his head jerked to the left, as if he was being tickled. Isabel let go of the key. For a second, she thought she would run, but when she realized he was still asleep, she knew now was her chance. In one swift move, she snatched the key and took off, but before she could make a run for it, Gavin’s eyes shot open.
“Oh my God,” Isabel said, feeling his fingers tighten around her wrist.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed, getting up. “Do you think I’m stupid, Isabel? Do you think I’m some kind of an idiot?”
Isabel wanted to run. Her eyes were darting back and forth frantically, and she let out a gasp. Suddenly she saw a pair of feet landing into the cellar. Presten.
“Who the fuck are you?” Gavin asked as Presten’s face swam into view. Maybe Oz was right; maybe the council really didn’t know what Presten looked like. “Isabel, you’ve got some explaining to do,” Gavin said, his grip on her wrist tightening. Isabel winced.
“Hey, you stay away from her!” Presten snarled. Gavin didn’t flinch.
“You think that just because you’ve got me locked up in here that I’m going to do whatever you want me to? Well, you’re wrong!” Gavin said, letting go of Isabel’s arm. She let out a squeal. “Izzy, honey, what’s wrong, are you hurt?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. Isabel looked at him and then looked away. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said again. “You know I wouldn’t do that… I just want you to mind your own business, that’s all.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” she hissed.
“And what about this guy over here?” he asked, ignoring her. “Who is he and why have you brought him here?” There was silence. “My, Izzy, you’re still so gullible… always trusting the people you shouldn’t trust.”
“You don’t get to talk about trust,” she snapped. She realized he was only trying to mess with her head. Isabel recognized that now, and she was doing all that she could to stop it. She turned to Presten for help and he nodded at her, trying to channel all his energy towards her. Suddenly Oz appeared from the far end of the cell and it was three against one. Gavin’s eyes started drooping, like he was being hypnotized.
“I, I,” he stuttered, and then, without warning, his head drooped like a deflated balloon. Gavin was spent. There was no way he could resist all three of them exercising their powers over him. Isabel breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Well that was definitely… intense,” she whispered, grabbing hold of Gavin’s key. “Got it,” she said, flashing Presten a smirk. They climbed out of the basement and Isabel quickly made her way for the stairs. “Who’s coming with me?” she asked. Without much hesitation, Presten followed her, the two of them hurrying up the stairs like little kids going on an adventure. Oz sighed and turned around. Was this jealousy he was feeling? Either way, he decided to mind his own business. Isabel was free to do whatever she wanted, no matter what he felt.
CHAPTER 7
“That must’ve been scary, what you did in there,” Presten said, looking at Isabel out of the corner of his eye.
“It was,” she said, shaking her head frantically. “And when his eyes shot open… that shit freaked me out.”
Presten chuckled. “I probably would’ve peed myself,” he said. “I hate to say this, but Gavin’s a scary motherfucker.”
“You’re telling me,” Isabel said, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe I used to sleep with
that guy.” There was silence. Isabel didn’t know if what she said was inappropriate, but deep down, she didn’t care. She knew she had bigger things to worry about than what Presten thought about her.
“I can’t believe you used to sleep with him, either,” he said, grinning. “You did a pretty good job, though, I’m proud of you.”
“I don’t deserve that, you guys did most of the work,” she said, looking at him through her eyelashes.
“I don’t think you give yourself nearly enough credit,” Presten said. “And I’m not just saying that… you’re way stronger than you think.”
Isabel didn’t know what to say. She wanted to believe him, she really did, but a part of her felt like he was lying. Isabel just wanted to step out of Oz’s shadow, to explore things on her own. But she knew that wasn’t possible: it was too risky. “I really appreciate you saying that,” she said after a long pause. “Right now, we just need to find Gavin’s room so we can try this thing.” Presten nodded. “I just need to remember where it was… oh, right there,” she said, pointing to that familiar swinging door at the far end of the hall. She pushed it open and stepped inside, immediately heading for Gavin’s closet. “Let’s hope it works.” The key rustled in its lock before the little door at the back of the closet creaked open. Isabel couldn’t believe her eyes. She pushed past some cobwebs, which hung from the ceiling like drapes, her knees bending involuntarily as the walls closed in on her bit by bit. “Hey, are you good back there?” she asked, struggling to turn her neck around.
Love of A Dragon (Exalted Dragons Book 1) Page 70