by J. R. Ward
Who had pissed himself. Either because at his age he had poor bladder control or on account of the surprise.
“No one moves or I shoot your master,” Duran said to the guards. “We clear?”
When there was no disagreement, he planted himself over the top of his female’s brother. “Ahlan, can you get in the cab—don’t fucking move, Chalen. You so much as breathe wrong and I blow your fucking balls all over the stone wall behind you.”
Ahmare’s brother had a good survival instinct. He picked himself up and tripped and fell his way over to the truck. The poor bastard somehow got himself in and even shut the door.
Duran took one step toward Chalen. Another. And another.
The closer he got, the more the conqueror cowered, the old male dropping the dagger, tangling in his robes, falling to the floor.
“I’ll give you whatever you want,” he said in a trembling voice. Lifting his skeletal arms, he tried to protect himself. “I have money! I have—”
“Shut the fuck up. Where is Ahmare—”
There was screech of metal on metal, and then something flipped out into the cell, a grate of some kind—
The female he had come to find, the one he had refused to lose, the love of his life, burst out of the wall like she’d been shot from a cannon, her body launching at him.
“You’re alive!”
Duran wanted to grab her and hold her and breathe her in, but he couldn’t spare the shotgun. “We’re all alive,” he said as he let in a brief ray of love.
But then he nodded at Chalen. “The question is how we’re going to kill this sonofabitch—wait, Nexi?”
As his old friend uncramped herself from the crawl space Ahmare had come out of, he was shocked at the Shadow’s presence.
“You’re always late,” she muttered. “We could have used you better about ten minutes ago.”
He smiled. “It’s good see you, Nex.”
She smiled back. “Yeah. Good to see you, too.”
Ahmare was over at the truck, opening the door, checking on her brother. Hushed, hurried words between the siblings, full of gratitude and love, were a reconnection that wasn’t complete yet.
Not until they were all out of here safely.
“Your guards are gone,” Duran said as he looked around and realized they were alone with Chalen. “Guess they’re getting reinforcements.”
“I’ll send them all away,” the conqueror vowed. “You can go. Take her brother, you can go—”
“Shut up.” Wait, there was one guard left—and he stood beside Nexi. “Who’s your friend, Shadow—oh, it’s you.”
It was the young redhead from the forest. The one Ahmare had saved.
As the kid nodded with hesitation, like he expected to get his head blown off, Duran figured that was how Ahmare and Nexi had linked up with a hidden passageway in the castle—and why the Shadow hadn’t killed that one particular guard.
“Thanks for helping my female,” Duran said to the male.
Now, when the kid nodded, it was more a vow between combatants on the same side.
Ahmare came back over from the truck. “He’s stable enough. But we need to get out of here.”
“You have one last job.” Duran held the shotgun out to her. “You get your kill. Then we go.”
Without Duran’s help, Ahmare thought, her brother would be dead.
Before that truck had broken through that wall, there had been no way for her to save her brother, no chance of that grate breaking free and letting her out in time.
And Chalen absolutely would have killed Ahlan. The fact that he hadn’t was only because of Duran’s shocking arrival. So, according to the Old Laws, and on behalf of all the others Chalen had killed in his eons as a mercenary, it was true: She could lawfully end his life.
She bent down and picked up the dagger he had been about to use. There was dried blood already on it.
Off in the distance, there was the sound of an approaching army, the guards organized and coming to save their master. But in a race against a bullet shot at point-blank range? No contest on that one. The double barrel was going to win.
“You can have your brother,” Chalen said. “He’s what you came for. Keep the beloved, too. I don’t care. Just spare me.”
Ahmare went over to the conqueror and crouched down. The fact that he whimpered like a wounded animal made her anger worse.
“You tortured the male I loved for two decades,” she gritted out. “You have killed too many to count. For godsakes, you treat your own guards like they’re your property.” She glanced over at the young male. “You took his voice box—”
“Who cares about them,” Chalen said. “Your brother. You have your brother—”
“Take the gun and do it,” Duran cut in.
But Ahmare just shook her head and looked at the young guard. “Will you help me communicate with them?”
Just as he nodded, a dozen guards arrived, bunching up in the hallway, stopping short when they saw their master was being held at gunpoint. They were fully armed themselves, but Duran shook his head at them.
“Anyone goes for a weapon, and I blow him apart. Then I’ll pick you off like bottles on a fence line.”
“Nexi,” Ahmare said, “back the truck out and have it ready to go.”
“You got it.”
There was the slam of a sturdy door and the rev of a powerful engine. And then screeching and bumping as the Shadow exited the truck through the hole it had made, a shower of rocks falling as it reversed out.
Ahmare looked at the young guard, and then the others. “I want them to know that I give Chalen over to them—”
“They won’t listen!” the conqueror yelled in a high, panicked voice. “I and I alone command that worthless bunch—”
“—in return for them allowing us all to leave, you included.”
“Attack! Attack them!” Chalen pushed up off the floor, his horrible face flushed and sweating as he commanded his squad. “Kill them—”
“I want them to know,” Ahmare continued, “that it is time they control this land, this castle. Tell them to use the gift wisely and remember what it was like to be subjugated to another.”
Chalen was screaming now, his voice going hoarse, spit leaving his lips as he hollered and railed.
“Tell them this is the divide. What went before is no more. The future is theirs to command, but I will be going to Wrath and the Brotherhood. Everything needs to be lawful from now on. The laws of the King must be obeyed or the Brotherhood will mete out a punishment that will leave none alive thereafter.”
The guards fired up with hand signals, and in response, young redhead communicated with them.
She knew exactly when the message was properly received.
All of them stilled, and every single set of eyes went to Chalen.
The anger in those stares was rooted in a vengeance so deep and abiding that she knew she didn’t want to see what came next.
“Come on,” she said to Duran. “Let’s leave them to their business.”
The pair of them began backing up to the hole, and she glanced at the red-haired guard. “You’re welcome to come with us—”
The young guard didn’t hesitate. He walked out with them, out of the castle’s lower level, into the night air . . . leaving the screams of Chalen behind.
Freedom awaited in the form of a Dodge Ram with a beautiful Shadow at the wheel and her brother alive at shotgun.
Ahmare spared her male one lingering kiss as they jumped in the truck bed. “You came back.”
To her. For her.
For them.
“I decided to live in the future, not the past.” Duran kissed her again and pulled the young guard up to join them. “Divides and all that.”
He banged a fist into the hood of the cab, and Nexi hit the gas. As they lurched forward and had to hang on to the gunnels, she couldn’t believe he’d left his mahmen behind.
“Those remains weren’t her,” he said over
the din. “But my love for you? It is all of me.”
35
IT WAS JUST BEFORE dawn when they finally stopped, and Ahmare had no idea what state they were in. They’d gone back to Nexi’s cabin for Ahmare’s SUV, and there, the Shadow had packed up some of her things and all of her weapons and ammo. When the female had hesitated in the doorway, they had waited as she took what seemed like her last look around.
And then all five of them were on their way with one last stop.
Duran returned the old truck to the yard he’d “borrowed” it from. They left the beloved in the front seat in a bright red bowl as payment for the damage to the front bumper and grill. Hopefully, the owner would sell the pearl for a big windfall.
Or maybe give it to his wife if he had one.
They went north in her SUV from there, and somewhere deep in the mountains, the Shadow had told them to take a series of turns that led them farther and farther away from the highway. Ahmare had followed directions. And now . . .
This.
As she stepped out onto the porch of a cedar house, her breath caught at that enormous view. From her vantage point overlooking the rising hills and the sleeping valleys, the very distant lights of human homes were like stars fallen from the sky.
She felt as though she had entered another world. Or awoken from a dream.
Had all of it really happened?
As she reached up to her shoulder, she winced at the shot of pain—
“Here, I made you this.”
Pivoting to Duran, she stared at the plate in his hand. On it was a sandwich. Had they emptied Nexi’s refrigerator when they’d been at the Shadow’s cabin? Guess they had.
He’d also brought her milk. As if she were a young heading off to school for the night.
The tears that pricked her eyes were not unexpected. And as soon as they came, he put her food down on a wooden table and came across, wrapping her up carefully on account of her shoulder wound. Her head fit perfectly on the hard pad of his pec, and behind it, beating steadily, was the heart she needed to hear.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she said.
His big hand stroked up and down her good side. “I did, too.”
She looked to his face. “What happened?”
Duran tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I did go back for my mahmen’s remains. But I realized, she’s gone. She hasn’t been here for . . . since I saw her die. What was I saving at the expense of your and my future together?”
Ahmare closed her eyes. There were no words to express how she felt, how grateful she was that he’d come to that realization, how maybe there was a life together for them after all.
“And what about your father?”
Duran took a deep breath. “I’ve wanted to kill him for so long. It’s been my only reason for existence, this vengeance—and you know, when I decided to let my mahmen’s bones go, I realized it was literally a case of my life or all that hatred. I had to release it.”
“Oh, God, Duran.” She shuddered against his warm body. “I’m so glad you’re here and you’re safe.”
His hand resumed its stroking. “I got out through the old duct system, it was more efficient than running through the corridors. I broke out of an air vent with about thirty seconds to spare. I ran as fast as I could so I didn’t get trapped in the collapse.” His eyes traced her face. “And I knew where you would go. I returned to Chalen’s as fast as I could.”
“And you got there just in time.”
“Almost like it was fate.” He inched back and smiled down at her. “As if someone knew what they were doing all along to bring me back to you.”
They both tilted their heads up and looked to the heavens. It was a beautiful night, the galaxies glowing above in the cloudless sky, the stars twinkling clearly. And yet there was also a warning to the east. A glow that was, at present, just a kindling. The fire was coming, however.
“We better go inside,” she said.
On their way in, she picked up the sandwich. And he got the milk.
Teamwork, she thought, was everything in a relationship.
The house was surprisingly big, a five-bedroom place that was almost all glass on the side with the view. The interior was made up of exposed rough beams and gray slate floors, and the rustic furniture was a perfect match. Ahmare learned that the Shadow had built everything from the ground up. The female had needed to do something to keep her busy over the last twenty years, she’d told them on the trip north, and she’d taught herself construction—as well as gotten better at making tables and chairs, evidently.
As the shutters came down over all the windows and doors for the day, Duran went to have a shower and Ahmare decided to go down and check on her brother.
She found the young guard asleep sitting up in an armchair in the lower sitting area. As it was cool in the basement, she took a throw blanket and laid it over him. He woke up immediately, and she put her hand on his knee when he jerked back in surprise.
“It’s okay. You’re safe.”
His eyes were wide and haunted, and she worried about what he saw in his dreams. She could only imagine what life had been like with Chalen, and wondered when she would learn the poor kid’s story.
“You’re never going back, okay?” she told him. “And we’re going to take care of you.”
As he exhaled in relief, she gave him a hug. And also a pillow for his head. Some night, they were going to get him into a proper bed, but she understood his need to be on guard. Who could blame him? Sometimes the worst part about trauma was not going through it. It was the aftermath, when you were free.
And you obsessed about what would have happened if you hadn’t gotten out.
Heading down the hall, she was surprised to hear voices coming from Ahlan’s room.
And then she stopped in his doorway. Her brother was lying back against the pillows of a queen-size bed, his gaunt face and sunken eyes still shocking to see every time she looked at him. His color was so much better, however, and he was getting bathed.
Thanks to Nexi.
The Shadow was cleaning his bruised legs with a washcloth, her braids hanging down, her hands so sure and steady. And Ahlan was staring at the female with a kind of rapturous wonder, as if he had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.
“. . . even the furniture?” he was saying in a raspy voice.
“Yeah, I even made the furniture. The first couple of tries at chairs back in my cabin were not so—” Nexi glanced over to the doorway and flushed. “Oh. Hey. Figured he’d need a, you know, clean. Ing, I mean. Cleaning.”
“She gave me her vein, too,” Ahlan added.
“For medicinal purposes.” The Shadow cleared her throat and put the washcloth she’d been using back in a stainless steel kitchen bowl she’d brought down with her. “Well, this is done. You’re good. I’m going to head upstairs—”
“Will you come back,” Ahlan said as he tried to sit up. “Or I can come upstairs—please.”
Nexi looked down at him. She seemed surprised at the way he stared at her, and Ahmare felt a very sisterly impulse to beg the Shadow not to break his heart.
Male vampires tended to fall hard when they did.
Except then a small, secret smile graced Nexi’s lips. For a split second. But it definitely was there. “Yeah. I’ll be back.”
When the Shadow turned to leave, her face was all composed, all hard-ass, all fighter well-trained and experienced. And Ahmare let her be with that armor.
She had seen what was behind it, however. And had a feeling that a divide had presented itself for the Shadow.
Left alone with her brother, Ahmare crossed over to the bed and sat down. His hands found hers, and they just stared at each other for the longest time.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry I dragged you into all this. I was so fucking stupid.”
“No more of the dealing, Ahlan. Or the drugs. From here on out, you have to be clean.”
“I promise.
”
She hoped he could keep that vow. Only time would tell, but at least the commitment was on his part at the moment.
“I miss Mahmen and Dad,” he said. “Every night.”
“Me, too.”
As they both fell silent, she thought of things she wanted to forget. Like Rollie. And Chalen’s dungeon. The skeletons in that ceremonial arena and the Dhavos. And then, prior to all that, memories like packing up their parents’ personal possessions. Shutting down the house she’d grown up in. Walking away, though she hadn’t sold it yet.
Abruptly, she had no interest in ever going back to Caldwell.
“You came when I needed you,” Ahlan said. “You saved me.”
As he spoke, something inside her broke free—in a good way. And it was then that she realized she had always felt as though she had failed their mahmen and father. Somehow, in her mind, she had ascribed to herself and herself alone the ability to stop their murders. Save their lives. Restore their family to how it had been and should be.
It was craziness. But emotions were rarely logical.
But she had been able to save Ahlan—with help from Duran and Nexi. And as her brother was all she had left of her bloodline, there was peace to be had in that, peace that ushered in a whole lot of forgiveness for those things she had felt responsible for, even if she could not control them.
Ahmare stared into eyes that were the same color as her own. And thought more of the divides in people’s lives, the starts and finishes of stages, the eras that you weren’t aware of being in . . . until they were over.
“Do you want to leave Caldwell?” she asked.
“Yes,” her brother said, “I do.”
36
IT REALLY SHOULDN’T BE that tough.
As Duran faced off at the shower, he stared at the faucet handle like it held the key to the mysteries of the universe: H vs. C. His choice of one or the other seemed monumental. A predictor of things to come. A prognostication as to whether what was going to come next in his life would be good . . . or bad.
Reaching into the tiled alcove, he started the water and moved the handle to the “C” position—and was disappointed in himself as he pulled the curtain back into place. But there was no reason to think he’d tolerate warmth any better now than he’d handled it back at Nexi’s cabin. Had that been two nights ago? Or . . . only one?