He tracked the building storm. It was heading towards them, coming south on cooler air. A lightning storm.
Valen would love it.
He sensed his brother return.
Marek pivoted away from the rocks and walked back around the castle, pushed the door open and swung it hard as he entered, so it slammed behind him. He took the bottle of water that Valen offered him, not slowing as he made a beeline for the stairs to the basement.
He braced himself when he reached them, steeling his heart against whatever he was about to hear, knowing it would be bad. He couldn’t let it get to him. Caterina had valuable information that they needed. He was sure that Ares didn’t take any pleasure from what he was doing, although he couldn’t say the same about Daimon.
He paused at the top of the steps. No sound came from below. He frowned and ventured downwards, clutching the bottle of water so tightly he felt sure it would burst before he reached her cell.
Marek hit the floor and rounded the corner, his heart beating faster now, a sickening hammering against his ribs as he focused on breathing, the anticipation of what he would find clawing at him, close to tearing him apart.
Daimon stepped out of the cell, gave him a grim look and strode past him.
Marek blew out his breath and forced himself to keep moving forwards.
He stepped into the room.
Ares pushed to his feet and looked at him, his body twisting to reveal Caterina where she sat on the cot.
Unharmed.
The conflict reigning in Ares’s eyes told him what he needed to know. Neither he nor Daimon had been able to make her talk, and neither had been willing to hurt her.
“Give me a minute.” Marek moved aside when Ares nodded and walked towards him.
Caterina’s gaze tracked his brother.
He kept his focus on Caterina as his brothers left them alone, as he moved into the room and sank into a crouch in front of her.
Her hazel eyes, red from her tears, finally left the open door behind him and came to settle on him.
“I’m listening.” He set the water down beside him, eased onto his backside in the middle of the floor, between her and the door. “It won’t be long before Keras comes back. If Ares and Daimon scare you, then what Keras will do to you…”
He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Not when she tensed, that fear that seemed to be a constant in her eyes rapidly building again.
Marek picked up the water and played with it, needing to do something with his hands. Her gaze dropped to it and her tongue poked out, flicked over her lip as she stared at the bottle as if it was her salvation.
She was mistaken.
Her salvation was the one holding the bottle.
But he could only save her if she started talking.
“Whatever you have to say, Caterina, now is the time to say it.”
Chapter 20
Caterina watched Marek playing with the water, wrestling with herself, torn between telling him what he wanted to know and demanding once again that he find Guillem.
His brothers hadn’t been cruel to her, but they hadn’t been kind either. Not like Marek was. They had threatened her, had spoken about taking her outside for a swim in the sea, one where she would be held under the water to see how long a daemon could hold its breath. They had talked about seeing whether the waning sunlight would burn her now.
Somehow, she had stood firm throughout it all.
But as she looked at Marek where he patiently sat before her, worry shining in his rich brown eyes, dark crescents beneath them speaking of his fatigue, she wanted to talk.
She wanted to tell him everything because she didn’t want him to hate her, not as his brothers clearly did.
“Can you save Guillem?” she whispered, her thoughts returning to her own brother. Where was he? Had the man and Lisabeta taken him captive?
Was he already dead?
She couldn’t contemplate that.
Couldn’t bear it.
Marek sighed. “He’s a vampire, Caterina. I don’t think there’s a way to reverse vampirism.”
“There has to be. They said they could save him.” She burst forwards and regretted it when her head turned, causing her to sink back against the wall.
Marek looked as if he wanted to come to her as she pressed a hand to her forehead. “Whatever they told you… it was probably just—”
“Don’t say it,” she interjected, because she couldn’t bear the thought that he was right and they had only said what she had needed to hear to motivate her to do what they wanted.
She couldn’t bear it because if it was true, then she had done this for nothing. She had ruined everything she could have had with Marek for nothing.
“You might be able to save yourself,” he husked softly.
She closed her eyes and shook her head as she buried it in her knees, drawing them up and hugging them. She refused to believe him. He was just trying to hurt her because of what she had done to him.
“They swore they could save him.” Her voice was muffled, but she knew he could still hear her clearly. “I can’t have done this for nothing.”
A new feeling burst to life inside her and she lifted her head and stared at Marek over her knees.
“I have to go back. Maybe if I go back, I can make—”
“There is no going back, Caterina.” He cut her off this time. “They are going to know you assisted in my escape.”
She shook her head so hard her brain hurt. “I’ll make them see it isn’t the case. I’ll say you took me captive.”
He chuckled, a low and cold sound that shredded her hope. “They won’t believe you escaped from me, or that we didn’t kill you. They will think you’re a mole sent there by us to infiltrate them.”
Oh God, could it get any worse?
“You can’t save your brother.” His deep voice was colder than she had ever heard it, sent a chill down her spine as she tried to shut out his words, desperate not to listen to them. “I’m not sure you can save yourself either.”
She sagged into her knees, rested her forehead on them and fought back the tears.
Resignation swept through her, extinguishing the last of her fire.
“I don’t want to be saved then.” She didn’t want to live without Guillem. She didn’t want to live as a daemon.
She sank into the mire of her thoughts, drowning in them, choking as they closed in around her.
In the darkness, a tiny spark flickered.
“No,” she whispered and gripped her knees so hard her hands shook. “I won’t believe you. There has to be a way to save Guillem. There just has to be.”
Caterina wearily lifted her head and fixed her gaze on Marek.
“I promised. I swore.” She tried to get to her feet, but her legs buckled beneath her and she struck the side of the cot as she went down, sharp pain lancing her right hip and shooting up her back, ripping a cry from her throat.
She gripped the bar of the cot and pushed up, refusing to give up, determined to save her brother.
No matter the cost.
Her breaths came faster, sawing from her lips as desperation and fear collided inside her, as pain tore through her bones and she felt as if they were going to break. The heat that had abated scalded her skin as she tried to walk, as she set her sights on the door. She could reach it. She could get away from this place and help her brother.
She needed to help him.
She wasn’t sure what she was saying as she inched her feet forwards, as she wobbled and her vision wavered, darkness encroaching at the edges. She only knew that she had to reach that door.
She had to save her brother.
Her right leg gave out and she staggered sideways, hit the wall and flinched as her head cracked off the stone. The darkness grew stronger, a throbbing, pulsing wave of heat accompanying it now, radiating across her skull.
Marek grabbed her arm.
She shoved him off her. “No. I need to go. I can
save him.”
She swayed to her left, but Marek was there, blocking her path to the door. His voice swam in her ears as she pushed at his bare chest, as she weakly pounded her fists against it, putting all of her strength into each blow.
“I promised.” She gasped as her throat closed, as she fought for air and to push back against the rising wave inside her, one that felt as if it was going to destroy her when it broke, crushing her beneath the tremendous force of it. “I swore.”
She couldn’t breathe.
She wheezed, frantically attempting to get air into her lungs.
“Caterina,” Marek whispered and it tore away the last of her strength, because she couldn’t understand how he could still say her name with so much warmth, so much kindness, after what she had done.
She deserved his anger.
His hatred.
She broke down, the world spinning around her as she sank into the gloom.
Because there was no saving her brother.
And there was no saving herself.
Chapter 21
Marek caught Caterina as she collapsed, her desperate gasping breaths grating in his ears. She kept talking, repeating words about saving her brother, pleading him to let her go.
He carefully pulled her into his arms and pressed his right hand to her forehead. She was burning up. He palmed her slick brow and focused, calling a power that he never used. It was weaker than the one Keras possessed, but he hoped it would be strong enough to help him with Caterina.
Because he feared she would hurt herself if he couldn’t stop her, or worse, she would manage to escape somehow, mustering up enough strength to make it outside the wards and teleport, and she would get herself killed.
“Sleep,” he murmured softly as her struggles slowed, as her words slurred together.
He kept channelling that compulsion into her, trancing her into a deep sleep, one he hoped would be restful for her and would give her weak body and fragile mind time to recover from her ordeal.
Marek grew aware of someone behind him as he lifted Caterina into his arms, satisfied that she wouldn’t wake for a few hours. He ignored them and set her down on the cot, focusing on her even as part of him waited for his brother to say something about what he had just witnessed.
He covered Caterina with a thin blanket, brushed her damp caramel hair from her dirt smudged forehead and cheeks, and drank her in for a moment, waiting until he was sure she wouldn’t stir before he finally broke contact with her.
He turned and looked at Ares.
His big brother filled the doorway, a shadow in his black T-shirt and jeans, formidable as he folded his thickly muscled arms over his broad chest.
“Did you learn anything new?”
Not the words he had expected to hear leaving Ares’s lips. Marek wanted to fool himself into believing his brother hadn’t noticed what he had done to Caterina, but awareness of it was there in his dark eyes, laced with a hint of surprise.
Marek was sure he wasn’t the only brother other than Keras who had a power other than the ones they all had in common. Maybe Ares hadn’t inherited any of them from their parents. Keras had managed to get all of them.
“Nothing.” He split his focus between Caterina and Ares, unable to give his brother the whole of his attention, not when he was worried about her.
Not when he felt useless, unable to help her.
What she needed was to know her brother was safe, and that was the one thing he couldn’t give her. All he could do was ask Calistos to try again, and again, but he didn’t have much hope that eventually Guillem would appear.
If it had been Marek in the wraith’s shoes, he would have taken Guillem captive the moment he had discovered Caterina had escaped with his enemy. Guillem was now leverage in a very dangerous game, and Marek felt sure it wasn’t going to end well for the turned human.
Or Caterina.
“I have to go back to New York, but I’ll check in later.” Ares glanced beyond him to Caterina before his dark eyes shifted to the ceiling of the damp cell, drawing Marek’s focus there. “Daimon has gone to help Keras with Esher. Cal had to return to London to keep an eye on the gates now night is falling. Valen has agreed to deal with Rome and Seville, and I’ll lend him a hand if he needs it.”
Now that his brother had mentioned the others, he realised they were gone.
“You’ve got maybe half a day tops.” Ares turned away from him. “It’s all I could buy you. Make it count. I won’t be able to delay Keras for longer than that.”
With that, Ares stepped, the swirls of black smoke that he left in his wake hanging in the air for long minutes as Marek stared at them, slowly processing what his brother had done for him.
Ares had sent his brothers away so Marek could have time alone with Caterina, a shot at getting her to talk without his brothers looming in the shadows, frightening her.
His brother would never know how much Marek appreciated that.
He looked back over his shoulder at her. Although he was sure she wouldn’t be waking any time soon.
Not naturally, at least.
He could bring her up from the deep slumber he had tranced her into any time he wanted, but for now he would let her rest. If she didn’t wake before morning, he would rouse her, and hopefully she would be stronger, well enough to talk to him without working herself into another frenzy.
He needed to give Keras something to go on when he arrived. If Keras knew the memories he was looking for, there was a chance he would be gentler with her, and the mind probe wouldn’t hurt her too much.
Marek shut the door behind him, slid the bolt across and pressed his hand to the cold iron that separated him and Caterina.
She had suffered enough because of him.
The sight of her on the worn cot, in a damp cell, played havoc with him. He wanted her somewhere more comfortable, but none of his brothers would be pleased if they arrived to find her outside of the cell. Keras would rip him a new one.
As much as he hated it, she had to remain locked inside it, at least until he had discovered the truth. He couldn’t trust her again until he knew she wasn’t working for the enemy.
He closed his eyes and checked the wards on the cell. When he found a vital one was missing, he let the darkness inside him rise to the fore so his fangs would emerge and used one to slice his finger. He drew the mark on the stone wall in his blood, focusing on each stroke of the elaborate pattern to infuse his power into it, forming a new ward.
One that would stop Caterina from being able to teleport while inside the castle. The ward would spread to affect all adjoining stones, a ripple effect that would see to it that every inch of the castle was bound by it.
It wasn’t strong enough to stop his brothers from teleporting, but it would stop a daemon.
He stared through the door at Caterina, forming a mission plan in his mind as he watched over her.
She would rest until dawn, and then he would wake her if she hadn’t arisen already, and he would see to it she was fed and had water.
And then he would convince her to talk.
He wasn’t sure how he was going to achieve that, but he would make it happen, somehow.
Marek forced himself to leave her, trudged back up the spiral staircase to the main floor of the castle, and busied himself with unpacking the groceries Valen had brought as promised. He checked the refrigerator. It was cool, but not cold, the device still settling in after being turned on for the first time in years. He was surprised it worked at all.
He checked the stove next, watching the metal ring heating until it glowed red, and then switched it off.
The bags Valen had dumped on the island in the middle of the large kitchen contained everything he needed, and not only things like water, soup, milk and bread. There were things for females too. Deodorant. Soap. A pink washcloth. Even a matching pink toothbrush and toothpaste.
And a hairbrush.
Marek shook his head at them. It was Eva’s doing. Softenin
g those edges. Bringing out the side of Valen that everyone thought had died with their sister.
Marek appreciated the hell out of it though, because he hadn’t even thought about getting Caterina the basic necessities. Her cream camisole was dark with filth, and her jeans had been dirty in places. Maybe she would feel better if she was washed and dressed in warm, clean clothing. He added finding her something to wear to his list, and rifled through the store cupboard where he and his brothers tossed everything that didn’t have a regular place in the castle.
In the back of it, on a low shelf, he found a metal basin that was deep enough to hold a good amount of water, and a matching jug. He took them out and washed them, preparing them for Caterina.
He selected a can of soup and a bottle of water, and lined them all up on the kitchen island with some liquid soap and the washcloth. He went to his bedroom, turned out half of his clothes and realised none of them would fit her, and stalked up the hallway to Valen’s bedroom. His brother wouldn’t mind him borrowing some sweats for Caterina. He found a suitable black pair, carried it back to his room and added a light grey T-shirt from his own clothes, because he was damned if Caterina would wear all of Valen’s things. He wanted her dressed in something belonging to him. Possessive? Absolutely. Foolish? Probably.
He ran the water into the basin in his bathroom, pleased to find it was warm now, and washed his face. He pulled another T-shirt from his drawers and tugged it on, and grabbed a pair of socks too. Dressed and feeling more like his old self, he picked up the clothes for Caterina and took them downstairs. He placed them into one of the empty grocery bags together with the metal bowl and went down into the basement. He unlocked the door and opened it, and set the bag down just inside the door, quietly so he didn’t disturb Caterina.
He paused and studied her, listening to her steady soft breathing, reassuring himself that she was still sleeping soundly, getting the rest she needed to rebuild her strength.
Marek: Guardians of Hades Series Book 4 Page 22