Awakened

by Inger Iversen

  Chapter 23

  Servitto

  “Oh, brother, where art thou?” Tamsin and I rushed the room, hoping to find Ella.

  Darke emerged from the bathroom, and I was still amazed at how different he now looked as Chorý. He and I had different mothers, though we shared our father.

  “How I have missed you, brother,” Darke admitted sincerely.

  “Must we always meet on such hostile terms?” I asked.

  Tamsin pulled her steel blade from her side and stood closer to me.

  Darke smiled. “You look as lovely and delicate as a flower.”

  “Tell it to my blade, leech.”

  “Enough,” I commanded. The day I had dreaded since I’d learned of my brother’s infection and dealings with Laurent. “Brother, what have you done with her?’

  “I’ve sent her to the Council,” he answered.

  What? Tamsin and I shared a glance. How?

  “¿Cómo así, Raúl?” I asked in the language we spoke together as children, using the name that our father had been so proud to give him.

  “I no longer go by that name, and you know it,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “You are Raúl de Santos, and I have never stopped seeing you as that man.” I moved closer, only to stop when he pulled the matching dagger from his belt.

  Darke frowned with regret. “No, I am Darkness and Death. I am Chorý, with the blood of a Death Bringer. Brother, my hands be so soiled, they remain red even when they have seen no blood for days. I sent your girl to the Council, along with the only reason I have lasted this long in this wretched life.”

  Tamsin raised her blade, but I raised my hand to stop her from moving further. My brother had never a man to explain his actions, but if he wanted to start I would listen.

  “You say you have sent her to us, and now you raise a blade to the very ones that will protect her. Are you mad, or is this some ploy you have created?”

  Unshed tears filled Darke’s eyes as his sword fell to the floor. He looked to Tamsin and beckoned her closer. He pointed to his heart and whispered, “Place the tip here, push, and twist.”

  “No!” I interjected as Tamsin moved forward to fulfill my brother’s request. I’d never hesitated in the field—killing Chorý was my job, even if the infected had once been someone I knew and loved—but as my brother stared up at me, I wondered for the first time if I could could forgive him for what he’d become.

  “And why not? Should I suffer more? Is that what you wish, that I live and remember each life that I have taken for him?” Darke cried. “Has my suffering no gone on long enough?”

  “And if I offered another solution?”

  Darke laughed, a bitter bark far from the laughter of happiness he and I shared as children. “Should I pray to your leader for forgiveness? Will he cleanse my hands as death will?”

  If forgiveness was what my brother sought through death, he was a fool. I could offer no absolution for sins he’d committed after he’d left home, but I could forgive him for leaving me to fix his mistakes. I could forgive him for the pain and suffering he’d caused our family in Spain all those years ago.

  “Death would be the ultimate sacrifice, a way to cleanse the blood from your hands and be at peace for all that you have done,” Tamsin whispered. “I am willing to grant you that.” “You see, brother?” He pointed to Tamsin and smiled. “After my won heart, she is.”

  “Yes I am.” Tamsin responded with a chilling smile. Darke laughed at her remark. I was sure that he understood that Tamsin would rip his heart out if given the chance and that seemed to please him.

  Darke fell to his knees and removed his shirt. Scars from lashings and cuts decorated his body. Tattoos of a long dead language lined each of his ribs in beautiful winding and looping script.

  “Are you sure of this brother?” I asked.

  “It’s the only thing I have left to give. Will you protect the one I have sent with your girl?”

  Tamsin moved closer to Darke, and she ran her finger across his lowest rib and read the scripture. “Dagna bea mea tome.” Darke closed his eyes and recited the words with her. “Dagna bea mea soeuol. Verana mea culpa.” Tamsin stepped back and looked to me. “I give you my life; I give you my soul, while I take the shame,” she said in English. “His life is not mine to take.” Seeming no longer eager to kill him, she headed toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” I called to her.

  “To find Laurent. That scripture on his chest is the prayer you must repeat as you push the blade through his chest, in order to release his soul and end his suffering. It’s from the old writings. His soul is trapped.” Tamsin shook her head and left the room.

  I turned to my brother, where he still kneeled. I saw him, not as the monster he’d become, but as the boy he once was.

  “Hurry. They may need your help with Laurent.” I picked up the blade that he’d dropped and placed it to his chest. Even as a High Guardian in the Council, I’d never been asked to complete a task that I questioned, but that night, as I placed the blade to my brother’s heart, I wondered… If he were capable of asking for forgiveness, could I be capable of granting it? “I am sorry that I failed you, brother. I will not fail the one you sent with the Arc.”

  Chapter 24

  Alex

  The Chorý landed on us knocking both Ella and me into the tree behind us and then onto the ground. I fell on Ella, but I caught my weight on my elbows.

  It wasn’t the pain that had me panicking. Ella’s choked scream sent me into a frenzy as I desperately tried to unlock the hold the creature had on me. She was struggling to breathe with the two of us on top of her. My dagger, knocked from my hand as we fell, lay not even a foot away from us, and I couldn’t grab it. I needed both hands to keep his mouth away from my neck.

  As I tried to wriggle closer to the dagger, I could feel Ella struggling beneath me. I anchored myself with my feet and pushed my hips forward, to both relieve Ella of our combined weight and keep the creature’s teeth away from my neck.

  “Hold still, boy.” He growled, his teeth bared. He moved his face closer to me while pinning my arms to the ground, which pinned Ella beneath me. She pushed deeper into the snow, and I could feel the small puffs of air as she tried to take deeper breaths.

  If the creature killed me now, Ella would be trapped beneath me, unable to run away. He’d take her back, and I would have failed her—again. I didn’t know where Ana was, or if Jace and the team had even survived their mission.

  “Please, don’t,” Ella whispered from beneath me. I wasn’t one to cry, but my eyes burned as tears formed in them.

  Then it hit me. So many times, I had told Ella what to do if she was ever attacked by a guy and needed to disable him long enough to get away. As I lifted my left knee and he shifted to the left to keep control, I realized that whether or not this thing was human, a knee to the family jewels would still bring him to his knees.

  I angled my right leg at the awkward angle necessary and pushed it forward as I heard the snapping of twigs and the pounding of feet somewhere to the left. I hoped with every fiber of my being that it was Kale and the team, not more of these freaks. The holler from the thing on top of me was my queue to pivot and thrust him off of me. He didn’t fly far, but he moved far enough.

  I rolled us to the side and helped her up. “Run, Ella!” We both stood on wobbly legs and managed to get a few steps away from the creature that was moaning and writhing in the dirty snow. I shoved Ella roughly, using my strength to demand that she follow my orders, but she stumbled.

  When she caught her footing, she stood, frozen, holding her bloody lip where my head had slammed into it. I winced at the pain she must have felt as the blood dripped from her mouth to her shirt. I marveled at how my body felt light and loose, how easy it was for me to push that creature off of me, how I had felt pain but didn’t register it. What was going on with my body? I honestly didn’t have time to stand around and wonder about it, or wonder about t
he fact that my body felt as though it wasn’t my own.

  “Go—” The pain of hair and flesh being ripped from my scalp reminded me that I should have pushed Ella harder, been more demanding, or at least slapped her out of that frozen state.

  As the creature yanked my neck so far to the side that I felt as though my neck would snap—as he placed his large hand around my neck, making me gasp for air—I could do nothing but stare at Ella and her red wind burned face.

  The creature bit into my neck. I jerked once, twice from the pain, and then I couldn’t move. I couldn’t fight back, even though I begged my arms or legs to move. They did nothing, as if they were no longer mine to control. I felt the warm spray of blood as the creature released my neck and laughed.

  “Ah, adrenaline. Adds a sweet and tangy taste to the blood,” he whispered in my ear. I fought to stay awake. My body was cold, and my limbs felt like dead weight hanging from my body. My vision flickered. As his teeth pierced my neck again, I knew that I wouldn’t survive the night. That someone would have to tell my parents that I had gone missing too.

  I knew that like I knew a vampire was taking every drop of life from me, but I also knew that the person in the world I most wanted to live was standing in front of me, tears streaming down her face. I wanted her to live. I needed her to live, even if it was without me.

  I tried to mouth the words for her to go, but my body had given up. As the creature and I slid to the ground, I stared at Ella one last time, her heart-shaped face, round eyes, and smooth skin.

  I willed her with my eyes to run, sending every mental message I could to make her save herself. She finally turned to run, and I closed my eyes. I hoped—I prayed—that she would make it to the boat, and praying was something I had never done before.

  I never imagined death would be so peaceful, so silent. I could no longer hear a thing, and there was no pain, no cold, just nothing.

  My vision flickered for the last time, letting me see those sparkling gem eyes, those rosy cheeks, and that radiant smile.

  The first smile Ella had ever offered me all those years ago was the last thing I saw before I died.

  Chapter 25

  Kale

  Laurent sat in his chair at his desk as if it were a throne, and we didn’t have him surrounded. “Nice to see you again, Kale,” he purred to me, lifting his head and scanning the room.

  His Chorý had been easy enough to pick off. Laurent didn’t seem worried, and that worried me. “I can’t say the same.”

  Tamsin entered the room. She nodded, soothing the fear that rose in my chest. Ella was safe, and now it was time to deal with the main threat.

  “Well, I do miss you, and all those tears you shed for Hélène made me realize that I had done such a good job ruining your life. You were very special to me, didn’t you know?”

  I pulled the blade from my back and smiled. There was nothing special about the mental and physical abuse he dealt his favored Chorý.

  “Darke was my second choice, and you were my first.” Laurent stood.

  Jace moved toward the door. Deacon, Tamsin, and I moved closer.

  “Relax. Isn’t it customary that the executioner offer the death row inmate a few parting words? I have thought long and hard on mine, and it would be a shame to be denied that.”

  “What is up with all the self-sacrifice tonight?” Tamsin questioned.

  “I can only speak for myself, but I am sure that my goals are complete.” Laurent chuckled.

  “Meaning?” Tamsin moved closer.

  Laurent drew nearer to us, as well, and then knelt on one knee. Tamsin looked between the two of us, and I was just as confused as she was.

  “Are you saying that you planned this,” I gestured around to the carnage that had been created. Laurent said nothing.

  “Now would be a good time for those parting words,” Jace suggested.

  “There is a saying that I heard long ago about beasts and men and how they live within us.” Laurent chuckled. “Now that my moment is here, the words fail me.”

  I moved closer, placing the blade to his throat. “Well, you have seconds to remember. Deacon!”

  “Ten, Nine, Eight—” Deacon started the countdown.

  Laurent’s eyes flicked. “It is understood that inside even the most innocent of beings—”

  “Seven, six—” Deek continued, as did Laurent.

  “—slumbers a beast.”

  “Five, four—”

  “This beast, with proper coaxing, can be released.”

  “Three, two—”

  “But can it be controlled?”

  “One.” Deek ended the countdown, and I responded with a swift yet powerful swipe of the blade, ending Laurent’s tyranny once and for all. Everyone was quiet, and no one moved.

  “That seemed too easy,” Jace said.

  I looked away and spoke to no one as I leaned down to Laurent’s body. The beast in me recoiled as I held Laurent’s wrist to my mouth. I drank and drank until my belly felt as if it would burst. I then headed out the door in search of Ella.

  Chapter 26

  Ella

  My voice was raw and burned. It felt as though I’d been running for hours. A man dressed in cold weather fishing gear emerged from the boat and glanced behind me. I looked back, as well, but saw nothing.

  I turned back to face him. “Hey! You have to help me go back!” I knew that I looked like a wild woman, running toward him, with snow and dirt in my hair. My lip was bleeding, and my clothes were soiled and ripped.

  I was freezing, and my teeth chattered painfully. If this guy knew that Chorý had attacked Alex, he would have to go back and help him. I landed in front of him on my hands and knees with a thud. My hands burned from the impact and cold, and I felt as though I was going to be sick at his feet. I took a few deep breaths, trying to gather myself and my thoughts.

  As I closed my eyes, I saw Alex’s face, contorted with pain as the Chorý ravished his neck. I squeezed them tighter and held in the tears. It wasn’t over yet. Alex wasn’t dead. We could save him; we had to save him—

  “Come on, miss. Get in, so we can set off.”

  Shocked that he’d ignore my plea to help Alex, I stared as he walked away from me and headed for the boat.

  “No, we have to go back!” My voice was raw, and I started coughing so hard that I could taste blood. “We have to—”

  “Now, you look here, girl.” The old man neared me. “Those men paid me an awful lotta money to take you to Chote, and I’m gonna to do just that. Now, you get in this boat, and get in it now!” He grabbed me before I could move away. “They didn’t say you were gonna fight me on this!” he mumbled.

  The old man pulled me back toward the boat. I fought as hard as I could, but in vain—I’d just run through the snow, been crushed by two large men, and run some more, and now I didn’t have the strength to fight back.

  “Hey! Take your hands off her. I’ve got it from here.” Jace’s voice was music to my ears.

  As soon as the stranger let me go, I gathered the rest of my strength and ran to Jace. “Alex! He—”

  “I know. We found him.” Jace’s voice was softer than normal. His breath was warm against my face. The fact that Jace and Kale had found him caused my heart to skip a beat.

  “So he’s all right?” I tried to pull away, but Jace pulled me close and stroked my hair.

  “No, Ella. He isn’t all right,” he whispered in my ear. His hands moved down my back, and he held me more tightly. It felt weird. Jace never was touchy-feely, but his touch calmed me. I moved closer to the warmth he offered. Everything was going to be okay. Alex would be fine, and I was going home.

  “Ella, did you hear me?” Jace gently pushed me away to look at my face.

  “What?” I looked around, waiting for Alex and Kale to emerge from the woods.

  “I said I didn’t get there in time, and—and Kale is with his body now, but we still have to leave. We didn’t—”

  I jerked back a
nd watched him. “What do you mean, ‘his body,’ Jace?” I moved to pass him and head back to where I had left Alex, but he grabbed me and pulled me back.

  “Hey, Ella. You can’t go back. We haven’t finished off all of the Chorý, and they will still be looking for you.”

  And I found myself in the situation that I thought Jace had freed me from. I was being pulled away from my best friend as he bled to death in the woods.

  “Let me go!” I screamed, fighting and trying desperately to get away from Jace. The time I’d spent in his arms had allowed me to rest and catch my breath.

  The false sense of security had shattered, reminding me why I was here and why I hated all things Council.

  “Ella, trust me. If there were anything I could have done to save him, I would have—”

  “Shut up, murderer!” I screamed. “You murdered my parents!” Shocked, Jace let go of my shirt and hands, which sent me barreling into the ground in front of a pair of black boots. I looked up, hoping to see Alex, but it was Kale.

  “Where is he, Kale? Where is he?” I climbed to my feet and buried my head into his chest. I knew the answer, but I didn’t want to accept it. I couldn’t.

  Kale helped me stand and then faced Jace. His face and neck were covered in blood, and his clothes were torn and soiled.

  “Is that your blood?” I asked in a daze, reaching out to touch his face.

  Kale caught my hand and shook his head. “What did she just say to you?” he asked Jace, pulling me closer to him.

  “She’s in shock; let’s just get to the boat. Where are the rest of the crew?”

  “Don’t deflect.” Kale patted my shoulder and pointed toward the boat. “You’re right. We all need to get on the boat, and then you will tell me what she said.” Kale’s voice had an edge to it that sent chills down my spine.

  “What about Alex, Kale? We can’t leave him here.” We walked onto the dock and onto the boat. Kale sat me down just as it took off. The motor was loud, and it drowned out the conversation.

  Kale knelt in front of me and took my hands into his. When he looked into my eyes, I nearly lost the battle with the tears that were ready to spill. I squeezed his hands and closed my eyes. Alex had said that he and the others had come knowing that they might not make it back, that he was okay with that, but I wasn’t.