by Rye Brewer
I could already understand why Anissa trusted her.
“Thank you so much. I’ll be back soon to check on him. I promise.” They hugged briefly before Felicity turned to follow the man carrying Allonic. I hoped I’d see him again soon—he had gone through so much for us.
I pretended not to notice when Anissa swiped a hand across her eyes and sniffled. Then she turned to me. “Well? What’s next?”
Just when I thought my heart couldn’t be any more full of love, she proved me wrong.
“The high-rise,” I said. “We have to figure out where Gage is, for one thing. And Philippa…” I rolled my eyes. “She’ll lose it when she finds out it was Vance who did it. I was right to tell her not to come.”
38
Philippa
My eyes were tired. I rubbed them but wouldn’t close them as I leaned against the wall. I owed it to Vance to keep watching. What I was watching for, I didn’t know.
Valerius had only cried blood that one time. And he had never moved.
I leaned against the wall, wishing something would happen. Anything. The waiting was the worst part of all. I was never very good at waiting.
One of my personal holiday traditions was hunting for my Christmas gifts as soon as I knew my parents hid them. When I was little—and human—they used to be simple gifts. Christmas was different back then. I’d get a doll or a cradle for a doll I already had, maybe a few new dresses and books. And we were considered wealthy back then.
A noise at the door shook me out of my daydream.
I scrambled across the floor to protect Valerius. It was instinct.
When I saw Jonah walk into the vault, I let out a sigh of relief. “It’s you. The meeting is over already?”
He nodded—but didn’t speak.
Dread settled into my veins. “And?” I prompted.
“And it didn’t go according to plan.”
“I’m not sure I want to know what that means.” I inched closer to the body, like that would help anything.
“It means Lucian is dead, for starters,” he murmured.
“He’s dead? Like, really, really dead? Gone for good?”
“As far as I know, yeah. Gone for good. A pile of dust on the floor of the Great Hall. He might even still be there, for all I know. And the last time I checked, they can’t revive a pile of dust.”
I couldn’t believe it.
Lucian. Finally gone.
I wondered what Fane would think when he found out.
“So, Allonic had the spiritwalker go through with it? Is he all right?”
Jonah hesitated. “He’s not the one who did it. It wasn’t Marcus.”
No. I didn’t want to know. If he didn’t say it, it wasn’t true. Who else would’ve done it? Nobody else would dare. “Please,” I whispered, shaking my head.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“Philippa, don’t—” He reached for me, but I pressed myself against the wall.
“Don’t tell me what to do. You don’t know how I feel right now.” I wrapped my arms around my trembling body and drew my knees to my chest.
Vance. He killed his father. And he was in there, I knew he was. He must’ve been horrified.
“How did he do it?”
“A dagger to the chest. Some kind of special dagger. Turned him to dust.”
I stifled a sob. “Can you imagine what it was like for Vance? He’s in there. He showed himself to me for a short bit. I know he’s in there. And he had to stab his father in the chest and kill him.” Another sob bubbled up in my chest. I covered my face with my hands.
“I’m so sorry. I had no idea he would make a move like that. I mean, so publicly. I thought if he was gonna do it, he would’ve done it in private.”
I wiped the tears from my eyes with a bitter laugh. “Yeah, well, I get the feeling Valerius is the flashy type. You know?”
“Yeah. I know.” He waited for me to compose myself. “There’s more that I haven’t told you.”
I leaned my head back against the wall. “What could be worse than that?”
“I had to have him arrested for it.”
“What?” I jumped to my feet and bared my claws. I didn’t mean to. Just another instinctive thing. “How could you do something like that?”
“Put your claws away, and I’ll tell you,” he growled.
I snarled, but did what he said.
He was way stronger than me, anyway. It would’ve been a joke if I tried to attack him. I retracted them and held my hands up to show what a good girl I was, even as I imagined tearing his throat out.
“What choice did I have?” he asked. “He killed Lucian in front of ten clans. I couldn’t let him walk away.”
“You could have! You had a choice.”
“I didn’t. Besides, he’s not Vance. Not the Vance you knew. He’s Valerius now. I don’t care if Vance showed himself to you or what. It doesn’t matter. Valerius is in control. If you’d seen what I saw tonight, you would know it’s true.”
“Good riddance! I’m glad he killed that monster,” I spat. “You should’ve pinned a medal on him, not imprisoned him.”
“Cute.”
“How is Vance supposed to get his body back now?” I asked, looking down at Valerius. “If he’s locked up at Headquarters, he can’t possibly do it. And Vance will be trapped for as long as you keep him locked up.”
“There’s nothing I can do.”
“That’s not true!” How could Jonah be so dense? “You had him locked up—which I assume means you took leadership after Lucian.”
“Yeah, interim leadership.”
“For how long?”
“I called a meeting of all clans in a week, so we can vote for new leadership.”
“Great. You have a week to free him, then.”
He blinked. His mouth fell open. “You’re not serious.”
“Do you really believe that?”
He shook his head. “Philippa. I know how much you care for Vance, but this is way bigger than that.”
“You have no idea what I’m going through, so don’t pretend to.”
“I’m trying to be on your side here, but I have to think about all of us. The entire vampire world. What kind of message does it send if I set a murderer free? None of the others know what Lucian is capable of. It’s fine for us to say we’re glad he’s dead—we know what he’s done and how much he deserved it. They don’t. You know what would happen if I let him go? An uprising. Mutiny. That’s what.”
The thing was, I knew he was right. It wasn’t fair to ask him to do something like that. But it didn’t mean I’d let Vance rot, either.
“Fine,” I said, pushing past him to get to the door. “I’ll take care of it myself.”
39
Anissa
I wondered how many hours I had spent waiting in the penthouse for something to happen. Waiting for a phone call or an appearance from Fane or somebody else. Waiting for Jonah to come back, like I was, as I stretched out on the sofa.
The moon had shown itself and silvery light flooded through the glass doors to the balcony, along with the light that always shone in Manhattan.
I closed my eyes on all of it. I needed to rest. I was too tired to think straight.
No such luck.
Jonah came in almost as soon as I closed my eyes to recharge.
I sat up, and he sat next to me—when he raised his arm, I snuggled under his shoulder. Just being close to him was enough.
“How’d it go?” I murmured, wincing. I didn’t have high hopes.
Philippa wasn’t exactly the most rational.
“Terrible. She hates me for locking Vance up and wants me to let him go. I told her I can’t, and she understood.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
“So she’s gonna do something herself.”
Crap. I frowned. “Oh. That’s bad.”
“Yeah.” He stretched with a deep groan. “I don’t know what that means, but I know better t
han to think I can stop her. There are so many other issues going on right now, I never know which one to focus on. I’m so tired.”
“I’m sorry.” I put an arm around him and hugged him tight.
He hugged me back.
We stayed that way for a long time. I remembered seeing Sara resting on the same sofa and wondered where she was. I wondered about Mom, too, and when we would have the chance to really catch up. And about Allonic. Had he woken up yet? It all seemed to pointless, him draining himself the way he did. Valerius had planned to kill Lucian all along. We didn’t need Marcus to freak out like he did.
Then again, if he hadn’t, he’d be interim leader—and knowing him the way I did, I couldn’t imagine him giving up power once he had it.
So Allonic had saved us, after all. Would I ever be able to pay him back?
“You know, I was thinking about something,” Jonah murmured with his lips against the top of my head.
“Hmm?” I didn’t open my eyes. I was perfectly content staying there in his arms. Did we have to talk about anything? Couldn’t we just be together?
“About us,” he added.
That was different. “Okay. What?”
“Right to the point,” he murmured, then chuckled. “All right, since we never seem to have any time to waste. I wondered if you would marry me.”
Just like that, all thoughts of fatigue went out the window. I sat upright and stared at him.
He looked serious.
“Marry you?”
He grimaced. “Yeah. You don’t seem too thrilled at the idea.”
Was he kidding?
It was a dream I would’ve wanted at any other time. I would’ve hit the ceiling.
“Oh, no, no. It’s not that I’m not thrilled. I am.” I was also completely losing my mind inside.
Marriage? Yes, I loved him, and sure, I wanted to marry him. Someday. Once things calmed down. But when would that be?
“So? What do you say?” He smiled a little. Hopeful.
“Hang on a sec. Let me get my head on straight.” I took a deep breath as conflicting messages flashed through my brain.
I loved him and I always would. I wanted to build a family with him. I wanted to be with him forever.
Except… Sara was a hybrid and I had no idea where she was or what was happening to her. Allonic was with the fae, maybe still unconscious or even in a coma. I had no idea how badly he had injured himself. Gage was off someplace, doing whatever he was doing—Jonah was worried about him and wanted to find him. Philippa was about to get herself into trouble. I would’ve bet all the weapons in my boots on that.
Talk about timing.
“When did you plan on doing this—this marriage thing?” I whispered.
“I didn’t really plan anything—but as soon as possible. Tonight, if you wanted to.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” I put a hand on his knee. “Jonah, there is so much happening right now. Besides Sara and Allonic and Gage and Philippa, there’s me.”
“You?”
“I’m half-fae. Everybody knows that by now, thanks to Gregor crashing the League meeting last time. You’re the interim leader. It wouldn’t look good for you to be married to a half-bloodlike me. Everything’s so touchy right now. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize your standing—or your safety.”
He took my face in his hands and stared deep into my eyes. I remembered the first time I ever looked into his eyes and couldn’t believe it hadn’t been all that long. It felt like a lifetime had passed between the night I was supposed to kill him and tonight, as we sat together in his penthouse, talking about marriage.
“To hell with the clans and the rules. I don’t care about any of it. I care about you. Me. Us. I want us to have a future.”
“But the clan. The League.”
“I’ve walked away before, right? I’ll do it again.”
And he meant it.
I could tell he did. He wanted me more than anything else. For one brief, shiny moment I wanted to accept and throw myself into his arms and let the giddiness of the moment sweep me up. I wanted to be a girl, just an average girl in love with a guy. I didn’t want to have to think things through.
Still, one of us did. Somebody had to be rational and think about the world once the afterglow of marriage faded away.
“I love you, but I can’t marry you right now.”
His face fell. “Why not? I just told you I want to give everything up for you.”
I thought of my mother and Gregor, and I wondered if this was anything like what they’d gone through when they’d only wanted to be together, but had to think of the obligations associated with their own kind.
“Which is exactly why we need to wait, Jonah. I know you want to give it up and a huge, massive part of me wishes that were possible. Do you know how many times I’ve wanted to walk away from my own life so you and I could live in peace? But it’s just not possible. Besides, you know the clan needs you right now. We all do. Between now and the election, someone has to hold things together. I can’t think of a better man for the job.”
His forehead creased in a frown. “But I want us.”
“You have me. I’m not going anywhere. It’s you and me against the world. Right?”
He stroked my cheeks with his thumbs. “Right.”
The sadness in his voice was so tangible, I could almost taste it.
“I swear, we’ll talk about marriage once everything is sorted out. We will. Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.” He touched his forehead to mine, and we sat there, eyes closed, taking a few quiet minutes together before the next adventure started.
I knew there had to be one. We hadn’t had a moment’s peace since we met.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Revelation: Book 5 in the League of Vampires.
Excerpt
1
Cari
“This could all be so much easier for you, Carissa. All you have to do is tell me what I need to know.”
Dietrich’s voice was almost soothing, even though there was venom in it.
I didn’t know how many hours I had been there, strapped to a gurney at my wrists and ankles, covered in the sort of sticky sensor pads that people wore in hospitals. They were all over my body—including my breasts and between my legs.
“I told you,” I gasped as soon as I had enough breath to whisper, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A millisecond passed before excruciating pain tore through my body again. My every muscle seized up.
Dietrich’s hand rested on the controls for the sensors, and he didn’t like my answers.
Current flowed through them to whichever area he chose to hurt—not that it mattered which one, since the current flowed through my body either way and made my teeth grind together.
After what felt like forever, the current stopped, and I flopped back down onto the hospital bed. Even though I tried to hold in the whimpers, I couldn’t help it.
This was hell. That had to be it.
I had died, and I was in hell. Why had I gone to hell? I thought I was a good person. I had always tried to be. I was kind and thoughtful, and I never hurt anybody on purpose. Why was I being tortured, then? What was the point of being good if it all ended in a stark, bright, cold room full of medical instruments and machines that made me wish I had never been born?
“This can all be over,” he reminded me in a singsong voice.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but not before tears slid out and down my face.
“I don’t know! Don’t you think I would tell you if I knew what you were asking me?” I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at him—my neck hurt from tensing up so many times, every time he turned on the current.
He almost looked amused. What kind of sick monster was he?
“You’re a spy,” he sneered.
“I’m not!” I gasped. Where was he getting that idea? Nothing made sense. “You have the wrong person!”
“No,
no. I have the right person. I saw you with him, remember.”
“Who?”
“You know who. That vampire.” His face contorted like he’d just smelled something terrible.
“What vampire? This doesn’t make any sense!” I sobbed. “I don’t know any vampires! I never have! Please, please, believe me!”
He only laughed.
That laugh was the scariest thing I had heard all night. It came right before another sharp jolt of current that made me arch my back and scream in agony—he chose my breasts to focus the current on, and it burned my skin. I could’ve sworn I could hear it sizzle, even over my agonized shrieks and pleas for him to stop, just stop, make it stop.
It did stop, but not for good.
I wasn’t stupid. I wept openly as he stepped away from the controls for a second.
He went outside and closed the door behind him.
I could breathe for a second.
Where am I?
I barely remembered being in the car on the way to… this place… the… warehouse? That was it, or what it looked like from the outside—big, boxy, broken windows near the top, no light visible from the outside.
It sure didn’t look that way from the inside. I could’ve sworn I was in a hospital—or a lab of some type. Tiled walls and floors, There were two other beds in the room, but mine was the only one in use. Were the other ones ever used? I hoped not.
I looked up.
There was a skylight up there. It was closed, but I could see through it. The sky was still dark. It was still night, or early morning. I couldn’t have been there for too long, but it felt like days. When was dawn? When would it end?
Would the sun rise before I was dead?
My restraints were tight, made of a strong leather.
I was still in my dress from the club. Why did I ever go? I should’ve known I wouldn’t find Gage.
Nobody knew where I was and they never would. I would disappear without a trace. I was one of those girls. So this was the sort of thing that happened to women when they up and disappeared. They ended up in a warehouse hospital or wherever I was and were never seen again.