A devil of a smile crept up on his face. It startled me so bad I lowered a little away from him. I stood up from my crouched position and checked the guys. The two boys hadn’t dropped their awed expression. I was starting to get a big head but I was still distracted by the coincidence of the Vamp’s smile.
“You guys wanna take care of Vamp dude here? I’m going to cut my brother down.”
I started to walk towards Szar but stopped and looked at my Hunter boys who hadn’t moved. “Oh, and get my knives back for me.” I walked off, feeling slightly smug.
Chapter Twenty Six …and your enemies closer.
“Szar! Szar! Are you okay?” I raised his head a little as I cut the ropes off with knife #5. He fell onto me. For someone with exceptional defense, I was very weak in the strength department of holding heavy items. Like a twin brother.
He was limp and fell straight through my arms to the ground. I fell beside him panicked.
Just when my breathing started to get louder, Szar opened one weak eye and said, “It’s about time, sis. I was starting to doubt your abilities.” He stumbled over his words.
I smiled. I could not help erasing the anger of allowing him to get caught in the first place. “You’re the one who went and got himself locked up by Hunt—
I looked up at Calum and into his eyes as he stopped tying up vamp #2, and saw his hurt. I stepped easily back into the role of who I was before I met the Hunters who were now my friends. I risked finishing my comment, “—ers and Vamps. Luckily, I’ve befriended the Hunters recently and they have our best interest at heart. Well, two of them do, at least,” I looked at both as they watched Szar.
Calum grimaced more than anything, but he forced a smile. I wasn’t sure how to read it.
Szar rose up a little more across the front of me. I’d finished cutting the ties and stood to drag his mostly dead weight towards a wall to prop him up.
“You had to get kidnapped,” I mused perturbed for the second. Szar was always messing stuff up.
“Talent and genius are two different beasts I conquered long ago. Nice of you to attempt catching up to my level, sis.” He spit blood on the floor choking on the words. He wasn’t that hurt, he just spent much of the time “hung up” on the backboard torture wall. My father surely didn't know about that!
Calum, Lee and I met in the middle.
“We will have to carry him,” I said ignoring my brother telling me to leave them alone.
Calum looked at our two Vamps. “Vamps and Weres are mixed up in this. All four factions.”
Lee spoke, “I had a feeling, but now it’s confirmed. I also think this confirms my idea that the Vamp throne is either in danger of invasion and wanting a takeover. They don’t offer their services for free. There’s always a price…or a threat to pay up for,” his eyes motioned to the Vamps.
Why had Lee held these suspicions?
“Do we leave them?” Calum asked. He’d not been in many fights that ended in the thought of losing a life.
“No!” All three of us looked at Szar who seemed too frantically ready to help the wrong side of the track.
“Ah, you leave them and they tell who set me free. You can’t chance that,” he choked up something and spit it on the floor. “How long till February 29th?”
“Ten days,” Lee answered.
Szar seem hesitant to talk in front of them by the way he was eyeing my Hunter boys. Then his eyes shot to deep voice.
“Borgon here knows what the plan is. Knock him out and he’ll stay quiet, but he won’t live to see daylight. They’ll kill him for losing me and not capturing her or make him the next target.” Szar looked at me. “She is the bottom line. I was forced here by father to some ultimate crud plan that I’m not fully aware of yet. I don’t want to know why they wanted my sister and what they were planning but the rumblings lean towards the weird and crazy. She needs to be safe.” He spit blood and eyed the Vamp. Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt sure my brother nodded in the Vamp’s direction. I chalked it up seconds later to nothing.
Szar seemed a little more alert from the drop in gravity and wondered how much he’d had to eat. He and I were already on the scrawny side, but he was threadbare at the moment.
Deep voice had a name. “Borgon will go with us. We will take him to father. You will stay hidden until we know more of what’s going on,” I directed.
Szar laughed. Puzzled, I tilted my head and moved my arm to help him up since he was intent on it.
“Borgon could tell you everything, but I had the fortunate experience to listen to all their plans as I played target board practice dummy. For which was not part of the plan until you and Hunter boy got too cozy. And whoever or whatever this Godslayer is, it's bad news for all of us. That much I know.”
I ignored the "cozy" statement but reminded him this wasn't my plan nor was I informed much in the first place.
At this I looked him over for injuries seeing he was covered in his own blood. I didn’t remember what he wore the night of his disappearance, but it wasn’t originally the deep red that I see now. He never wore red. A once blue shirt I think was torn in places where something had slashed here and there. Dried blood covered his face and ears. He held his wrist and seemed to limp as he took two steps at one time before using the other foot. Otherwise, he really didn’t seem too injured. I would have asked what all they did to him, but figured I’d only get angrier and I’d know later anyway.
I stepped closer and raised his shirt to find a couple of cuts. Somewhat healed, some not, and somewhat infected.
“Do you think it is a weapon?” Lee asked about the Godslayer.
“Not sure, but we need to find out,” Szar coughed out holding his wrist. "They were adamant on finding it. And I’m not sure it’s a good you showed up in front of Borgon, but we’ll see. Father can hopefully rectify some of the issues at hand."
Lee commented behind me before leaving us alone, “I will find out.”
“My wrist is broken.” I grimaced so he added, “By my own hand trying to free myself. Unfortunately, that was a week ago and it healed mostly but set wrong. I’ll have to have it broken and reset.”
He could be worse, I thought. I jumped my attention back Calum and Lee.
Lee was watching the door, “We need to go.”
I wasn’t sure if I could kill the two thug Vamps or wanted to, so I came up with a different plan. Calum and Lee protested heavily, but finally complied.
They hauled the sleeping Vamp into the trunk at Lee’s heavy discomfort. The hottie Vamp was bound and gagged in the back seat waiting a little too patiently I noticed. I couldn’t figure him or his silence. Or his watchful eye—on me. He refused to answer anything I asked. As crazy as the thought sounds, I wanted to hear his voice. He never gave me even a small murmur. What is about him? I hate his kind. Fangs. Evil. Crazy didn’t name my odd behavior towards him.
I leaned in to sit and knew I was close to him. The flutter in my stomach edged stronger. It startled me so I jumped back out of the car and slammed the door shut. Going with crazy again, it felt like it was coming from him.
Shaken a bit, I moved around to get Borgon. I didn’t want to think about the Vampire or what it meant. “You boys get any weird vibes inside when you get near the Vamps?” I tried to say like casual conversation.
All shrugged and said no and nadda. Okay!
"Why? Do you?" Calum asked.
I stumbled over my “no”, but decided to add, "Only that one." I pointed to where "the" vamp was.
Szar laughed. I gave him an incredulous look and he added, "You owe me."
I snipped at him, "No I don't."
"Not you. Him," he pointed to the hottie vamp.
Trying to conclude why he would say that, I gave up and asked, "Do you know him?"
Szar laughed again. Loud.
“Vampires stink for days.” Calum compulsively shared.
I rolled my eyes, “How do you know?”
“I’m sure I’m right
either way,” he grunted.
Beside the Vamp, Borgon was bound and gagged and in the back seat on a towel so blood didn’t get everywhere from his wounds. We closed the warehouse door for extra time bought before discovery. Borgon offered very little information, but did say that a visitor was expected the next day at noon. He looked at Calum when he said this and I took it upon myself to ask for clarification, “Dr. Green?”
Deep voice, or Borgon, nodded a yes.
We drove the speed limit flying towards my “kingdom by the sea”.
I wiggled in my seat a bit with the nerves of not thinking about Calum going to my home. Also, the stomach thing killing me sitting close to the Vamp. Yep! It’s definitely Vamp boy! What was he doing to me?
I dared a glance at him. He was staring me down, but not menacingly. Almost adoringly.
The car was silent for a good ten minutes with an hour drive still left to go. Great!
“They plan to take over the Hunter, Vamp, Valkyrie, and Were territories all at once. They have spies and weapons covered up in all of them and will hit all at the same time. My sis here is the key somehow to how it goes down. Know the whats but not the whys.”
I chanced a glance at Vamp boy and he was of course, watching me. “Why are you letting him hear this?” I directed to Szar.
“Does he really matter to you?” he looked at me with guarded eyes. "Not all of them are the evil they've been rumored too."
Um, he gives me the warm fuzzies and I don’t like it. “No!” I looked away from both of them. The vamp smiled like he knew something I didn't. Szar, in all his weakness reached over and apologized to Borgon and Vamp boy before knocking them in the head.
“Better?”
I frowned.
Szar looked at Lee. “Dyer?”
Lee nodded.
“Thought so. What are you…doing here, really?”
Oh, Szar was still the same old Szar, weary of all and trusting of no one. Except Vamp boy for some reason. But single-handedly unforgiving of anyone else. When I clenched my fist, Calum reached for my hand over the seat, not understanding my reasoning. He didn’t like my rejection either.
When Lee didn't answer, I did.
“Half Hunter, half Val,” I saw his shoulders tense in front of me as I said it fast. Szar looked at me for answers. My brother might have considered smiling if the situation had been less tense.
“When I disappeared, I was sent in to infiltrate the Hunters for answers, but started with your court. I was sent to the Green School for the duration of the my school age.”
He left some and added more. I certainly was filling opinion the gaps with the added detail that he was aware of some things before coming to my court.
I followed Szar’s narrowing eyes to me accepting Calum’s hand the second time. Being twins, we had an even more acute sense about each other. We could read each other’s emotions and even sense when the other was in danger. Like right now he knew I only held Calum’s hand to comfort him. I was fine, but needed reassurance. It was me the night of his disappearance that went into a raging fit to our father to send the guards to the gates because something was wrong and I knew right at that moment, he was already gone.
But he also knew how I was feeling about Lee and Vamp boy. Hiding it was futile.
“I found out pretty quickly that Dr. Green and Dr. Quinn, the headmaster and a teacher, were in on it, but since learned they were threatened into cooperating. Dr. Green’s son has helped me graciously and will do anything to make sure I…we are safe.”
“Where is he now?”
“Right here,” Calum spoke for the first time to my brother.
Szar didn’t like that. "Dr. Green is in league with them.”
“Is. And trying to keep his family alive. But that—
“Is not important.” I held up my finger to go into a “please listen” speech, but he stopped me.
“Because, I heard it from Dr. Green himself. About a week ago, Green and our father,” he paused for my reaction, “stood inches from me while all the henchmen and Borgon argued outside about security."
I gasped. Our father?
“Dr. Green had something interesting to say,” he stopped again.
I let my hand slip from Calum and hit Borgon’s arm in the process and also bumping Vamp boy’s arm forgetting his injuries. I refused to look at him. He had some kind of Vamp powers that affected me.
Calum adjusted in the front seat. I felt stupid for hitting an unconscious man.
“They thought I was out of it, but father standing in the lion’s den didn’t seem like a good time to show off my kung fu when I was the circus act of the hour," he smiled. I missed that. He was really handsome when he acted himself and his normally blond spiked hair added to his trendy clothes and shoes. The classic pretty boy prince who nearly did everything the opposite of what he was told.
“From what I gathered,” he looked over at Calum now resting his hand on the back of the seat to see me, “the two of them have known each other a long time.” He glanced to see my reaction. This was a lot. I looked at Calum for recognition.
“They both knew each other a long time. Before our parents married. They talked about how our twin birth was pretold and that one of the twins would find their way into a prophecy that couldn’t be reversed or else, both would die blah, blah, blah.” He swallowed slow and held his throat. It hurt to talk.
“Dr. Green,” he looked at Calum again for the second time, “knew about how his wife died to save you, his son, and that he would be marked by the stars.” He looked at me. “And father repeated the same, about you.”
I found out then I’d been holding my breath for longer than I could because I let it go louder than I should have. Why were we saying all this in front of the kidnappers? “Szar, shut up. Not now.” He didn’t listen.
“I heard the stories growing up, Stace. I knew it was inevitably true. The other day he added that you were marked by a lover and a friend and some other crazy ass mumblings,” he paused and looked between us, “and that mom died because of you. I've known for some time now this wasn't about me. I'm the patsy ass tie between.”
Szar’s eyes narrowed into slits at my next admission, “But I didn’t come to save the world, you did?” He is the heir, not me. Calum jerked his head, his face showing every bit of realizing that I’d been holding back. “Szar, I would change it if I could. And you were born that day too.”
Lee hadn’t said a single word in any of this, but the car was still moving forward.
Szar looked at Calum narrowing his eyes, “So, are you marked, son of Dr. Green.”
Calum didn’t miss a beat. “Why don’t you ask her?” The steam was rising in his chest. The heat was burning through my hand as I freed it from where h'd grabbed it in a tight bind.
I nodded, red faced. I looked towards his stomach and realized too late that meant I was looking to the top button of his pants. This was my brother watching.
Calum didn’t budge an inch to help me.
“I hope this means you haven’t taken advantage of my sister, because if I find out you have, I’ll kill you before your Hunter ass can cross the car.”
“Szar, none of that. Not that it’s your business anyway. And no one has taken advantage of anyone except you right now.”
“Me? HOW? Your the only girl here.”
“You are taking advantage of your brotherly rights to invade my personal space when I am here to save your sorry ASS from certain doom. So if you’re done with the loathsome fatherly lecture, I’d like to hurry home to a fun filled court of never being allowed to talk to anyone, much less a dang boy. You were as bad as him. And if this whole prophecy thing is true, you’re off the hook from certain more doom, and my life was never my own in the first place. I, apparently, never had a choice.”
Calum’s hand shot back.
“Oh, I didn’t mean that. I didn’t mean I didn’t choose, I…I…oh! Not in front of all these people!” I said through my teeth. �
�I didn’t know about any prophecy when I showed up at the school and I certainly didn’t know anything about you Calum Green. I assumed you didn’t either.”
“No, I didn’t,” he confirmed.
I continued my second monologue. “I want to know everything you know about this Szar Hathown! I’m tired of wondering if I’m going to die in ten days or turn into some giant serpent Medusa or worse, watch someone I care about die.” I inadvertently looked at Calum on the last four words. I didn’t mean to, but it was out and Calum’s lips parted just slightly enough for me to know my terms of endearment however misjudged they may be. It wasn’t like I’d said anything to him, but it was still “out of the bag” like I had.
It also didn’t help that Lee took that precise moment to swerve at the same time I finished the sentence and saw Calum’s face. Szar shifted around in the front seat giving me the back of his head. I should have been glad, but he wasn’t finished yet, and neither was I.
“I think you have more to tell me or am I mistaken?” I shouldn’t have given him a choice. But he continued anyway not in my direction.
“On the night of our birthday, yours too I hear,” he threw a finger in Calum’s direction not looking at him, “Borgon here will have taken me to the school, cornered you and Hunter boy here, and would force you to make a choice between who you want to save. One will die, one will live. At least that’s what it will start as. Various other parties, I never saw or heard other their names aloud, were said to kill all three of us. Someone is orchestrating Borgon regardless. And then, take all the courts in the same night.”
My body sank in the seat further. It all sounded right. “But how are the Vampire and Were courts involved?” I was startled to see Szar glance at the Vamp boy expecting to see him awake and had heard everything, but he wasn’t.
“And you should know...father sent you to the school for you to find your Hunter boy. Apparently, he fought the idea of it for years according to the conversation between the fathers, but he gave in and decided that the only way to save you was to have this Hunter as your…bodyguard,” he snorted at his ending. “Anastacia, he only sheltered you and kept you from everyone because he knew what you were.”
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