As we come to the end of the hallway, we are ambushed by more minions. Four Chimera jump out at us from a nook in the wall. Two stand before us and two behind us. I turn, ready for some action, feeling a rush of power spike through my veins.
I’m about to deliver a jab to the beady-eyed one behind me, but before I connect with him, he’s suddenly thrown away from me. I turn back around to find the two in the front have been knocked out cold. Looking back at the other two, I see they are unconscious as well.
I look to Eldrida who gives me a satisfied look.
“You used your powers well,” she says proudly.
“I didn’t do anything,” I say puzzled.
“When the Chimera jumped out at us, I felt your energy spike. You shoved them away, protecting all of us.”
What? I felt a spike in my power, but don’t remember doing this, at least not consciously.
Laveda places her hand on my shoulder. “One day you will understand your powers, and how to control them.”
“We must go,” Eldrida warns. “I’m sure they already know we’re coming, so we don’t have much time.”
Reaching the end of the hall, we find a spiral staircase that leads down deeper into the mountain. I peek over the side but the bottom is obscured.
Cautiously, we descend the stairs. I keep trying to look to the bottom but can’t see anything past the steps below. Once at the bottom I stop short, my breathing now uneven with panic. This time I can feel that it’s my own fear and not Cerelia’s power over me.
In the middle of the huge laboratory-like room, Addie is tied to a hospital bed with an IV jutting from her arm. Her eyes are open but she’s motionless. Oh god!
I start to run toward her, afraid of her condition, when Hanalei stops me.
“It’s a trap. You must be cautious.”
“If we were being cautious, we wouldn’t have come down here in the first place. We’ve already stepped into the trap.” I shake off her hand and run to Addie’s side.
“Racquel?” Hope surges through me as she blinks her eyes and mumbles my name. Her eyes go wide, her heart rate picking up with panic. “You have to leave. If he catches you here, he’ll kill you.”
“Who? Who did this?” I ask as I rip out the IV. Instead of wasting time unlocking her straps, I break them with a single twist. I can feel my power racing through my veins. My only thought is getting her out of here.
“I did, of course.” I jerk and turn to the voice behind me. I look up to see the cloaked man who’s been haunting my dreams. He stands at the top of a set of steps. Above him, an observation room looks over the laboratory. I can see movement in the room but can’t make out who else is in there.
Standing before him now feels different than it did in London. Then, I was so shocked to see him in the open. Not to mention that I was momentarily stunned from being knocked around by his minions.
Now I want nothing more than to kick his ass. My questions about his identity are gone. I could care less if he was Lucifer himself, wreaking havoc just to have some fun. All I want is for him to pay for what he has done.
His identity means nothing to me now. I want retribution for what he has done to the only person who ever loved me. I want him to pay for all the innocent lives he’s put in harm’s way for whatever sick and twisted game he’s playing.
“Do not be afraid, my little Racquel. It is not me you need to fear,” the figure says calmly.
“Oh really? How do you figure that?”
Addie stirs, sitting up on the bed, shaking. I want her to make a mad dash for the door but she’s in no shape to do just that. Hopefully I can keep psycho talking while she regains enough strength to move.
“I only want to give you what’s rightfully yours. A world in which you are adored, not one where you’re banished and beaten. You deserve so much more than you have received, Racquel.”
“How considerate of you,” I say with sarcasm. “Do you honestly think harming innocent people is a life that I want to live?” Placing Addie’s arm around my shoulder, I help her stand on her feet. Her legs buckle under her weight but I hold her up.
The figure takes a step forward. “I did what had to be done. Those lives were not wasted by any means. They have served me well in my quest to bring justice to our world. The ignorant fools who plague the Shadow World will understand your uniqueness. No longer will they condemn you, instead they will admire you.”
His proclamation shocks me. My grandfather used to say that one day the Shadows would admire me, that they would no longer condemn me. I had always hoped he was right.
The figure takes another step down. “You deserve respect in this world, for you are unique. No one in this world has ever compared to how special you are. I’m going to make sure everyone sees that. Even if it means I have to become the monster.”
Addie stands on her own feet. She starts backing away from the approaching man. “Don’t listen to him Racquel, he’s only after power. I’ve heard them talking about it. They just want to use you.”
“She is wrong,” the figure counters. “While I do intend to get some gratification out of this, I am truly doing all of this for you, Racquel. Whatever else Cerelia has planned, that is her own business.”
The cloaked man takes his final step down off the stairs and begins to slowly walk toward us. I throw my hand in the air to stop him.
“Don’t come any closer,” I demand.
Addie continues to pull on my arm as she backs away toward the stairs we descended.
But I’m stuck in place. I want to ensure Addie’s safety, but I’m confused by what this guy is saying. I want to know why he is so interested in how I’m treated.
Shaking off Addie’s grasp, I square my shoulders, facing the man I have feared since all of this began. “Why do you care so much?”
Instead of answering my question, he raises his hands to his hood, pulling it up and over his head. He raises his face so that I can see it.
My breath catches as all-too-familiar, coal black eyes look upon me. “Why wouldn’t I care?” he asks, while I stumble back in astonishment.
This man, who has brought pain and death to so many families, once held my family together with care and love. After all this time of not knowing where he went, or why he left us, the man I once loved and admired stands before me.
“Grandfather?”
Chapter Twenty Five
I’ll admit, I didn’t see that one coming. When envisioning the villain behind the mask, I imagined a mad man with crazy eyes and a scowl. I could never have pictured the man I once admired.
After my grandmother’s passing, my grandfather just took off, leaving only a note with bank account numbers, how to transfer the house to our names, how we were to share the car, and nothing about why he left. So this is what he’s been doing all this time.
Is this why my grandmother wanted me to find the Shadows? My heart reaches out to her as I focus back on my grandfather.
“How could you?”
The scar on his hand seems to flash in the light. Gods, I’ve been so stupid. If nothing else, that scar should have told me who was under that cloak. My mind flashes back to the night my grandmother died. My grandfather had been in a frenzy of despair, tossing whatever he could grab around the room. Not paying attention, he had grabbed the pure gold necklace he had given my grandmother. The chain had looped around his hand, burning into his flesh as he held it.
He gestures to me. “I did this all for you, Racquel. For you and our family members before you. All those idiotic fools who hurt you all so deeply will soon know what true powers lie within you. They will finally have something to be truly afraid of.”
He points at the Elders standing behind me. “How can you trust them? They judged you without even knowing you. They shunned our family. They treated us like rubbish.”
“They’ve been helping me find you,” I point out, although I know my argument has its holes.
“Yes, to save those they love. If it h
adn’t been for that, would they have ever said anything to you?” His voice is tight with hatred as he glares at the Elders behind me.
I can’t argue that point. When I arrived in town, Ethan lashed out at me, then the Witch attacked me. Before that no one had ever tried helping me understand who I was. They all just wanted me out of their way before the day they realized I could be useful to them.
“They’ve never cared for you. They never tried to help our family,” he continues, his anger growing.
“That is not true,” Eldrida objects. “We tried to save Lycia. She was a part of your family too, was she not?”
Hearing my mother’s name makes me cringe. It’s hard enough thinking about her, but whenever someone else speaks of her, I feel shame at what happened to her because of me.
I glance back to see that Eldrida has walked a few steps in front of the others, almost like she’s shielding them but also challenging my grandfather. “Come now, Edwin, you must remember that.”
“Oh I do remember that, I remember that very well. The point you’re missing, my dear Eldrida, is that she was one of your own, a pure-bred. Her family reigned within the Coven until she broke your rules and married my son.” His voice raises as his anger flares, causing me to step back.
“And I also remember when my poor Clamena became sick. You offered no help.” His fists are balls at his side.
“We couldn’t help, and you know that. There was nothing we could do for her. We all must pass in our own given time. No one could save her, not even you. Your bite would have killed her. You both knew from the beginning that the day would come. Nature had to take its course.” Eldrida is calm, her voice strong and steady as she regards my grandfather.
I remember seeing my grandmother age, while my grandfather stayed young. His blonde hair never fading, his dark eyes never losing their luster, his features always staying sculptured and beautiful, not marred by wrinkles. My grandmother was touched by age, but I always thought that it was part of the beauty of life, being able to blossom into new stages of life.
“I don’t believe that for a second,” my grandfather spits. “She had more years within her. You didn’t even ask to see her. It was all because of her mixture, the disease tainting her blood, as you all called it. Your bigotry was why you didn’t help.”
Looking from the older Witch back to me, my grandfather smiles. “But it’s not a taint, it’s uniqueness that holds power beyond imagining. You have the power Racquel, the power to end all this.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, taking a quick glance back to check on Addie. She beckons me, wanting to get more distance between me and my grandfather. I shake my head. I refuse to show any weakness in front of him.
“Take your place beside me, Racquel,” my grandfather entreats. “We will show them. Your rightful place is here, not out there with those who treat you with fear and revulsion.”
I stand there at a loss. I had come here expecting to bring some crazy psycho’s existence to an end, and rescue those he tried to ruin. But I can’t help admitting that I’ve thought everything he’s just said. I have been terribly mistreated my whole life. He’s not wrong. For a moment, I contemplate whether or not to join his ranks. To seek retribution from all those that brought harm to me and my family, revenge for all the wrongs done to those I love.
Yet he tried to kill me on my quest to find him. He took Addie away from me and abused her, for what reason I still haven’t found out yet. Really it doesn’t matter, the fact that he took her, knowing what she meant to me, bringing pain to her life, reminds me to question his motives.
“Why did you try to kill me? You sent your creatures after me, to stop me from finding you. Why would you do that if you wanted me to join you?”
“I wasn’t ready for you yet. I wanted to complete a few things before your arrival,” he says defensively.
“So trying to kill me was your strategy for keeping me away? Really?” I’m not buying it. I know he kept giving warnings to me but those minions of his could have made one false move, chopping my head off or something, then it would be adios to Unique Racquel.
“I ordered them not to kill you. I have never had any intention of killing you. I just wanted to scare you away.”
“What about Addie? You know how much she means to me. Why would you take her away from me?” Tears are burning my eyes, knowing I had been moments away from losing Addie forever by my grandfather’s hands.
“I took her so I could keep you two together forever. I only had the best of intentions for her,” he explains, his tone holding no regret of his decision.
Glancing back at Addie, I can see her tears falling. The pain of what she has endured is evident all over her body. How was this best for Addie, or any of them for that matter? “What exactly were your ‘best intentions’? Turning her into a Vampire would have killed her.”
A woman’s voice fills the room. “A Vampire?” she says laughing. “We were planning something much bigger than all that, my sweet Racquel.”
I look up to see Cerelia standing at the top of the steps, looking down imperiously, as if standing high on a throne. I know it’s her from the power boost within the room. She also emanates a sense of authority, gained from walking the earth for so long.
I still see a shadow within the room that overlooks the laboratory. A part of me was thinking it was Cerelia lying in wait until she felt it was appropriate to enter. So who else is up there?
“I’m glad to see my hard work is paying off. You look exquisite, my dear.”
“For one, I’m not your dear. And what do you mean exactly?” I cross my arms over my chest, unafraid by this beautiful, oh-so wicked Witch.
“Why you see—”
Grandpa turns, scowling at Cerelia. Whatever information she was going to give away, he doesn’t want her to spill it.
“Let’s not dwell on that just yet. We will explain the details to her later, once she’s taken her place with us,” he says with warning.
“I want to hear what she has to say right now,” I say with my own demanding tone.
“I don’t think now is the appropriate time, Racquel.” My grandfather takes a step toward me, I take two steps back.
“I said I want to hear it,” I demand again, all but yelling.
Cerelia’s scarlet red lips hold a satisfied smile. Her beady eyes are glowing with wickedness. Her beautiful shimmering black curls frame her dark beauty.
“You see my dear Racquel, none of this would have been possible without you. And you wouldn’t even exist without me. When I heard of your great-grandmother and grandfather coming together, I began to conceive this great dream.” Her eyes glow with self-satisfaction and glory, her voice sweet yet mocking.
“Once I met your dear sweet grandmother, my dream started coming true. I helped create your father, you see. It wasn’t easy, but with determination and some advanced binding spells, it came to be.
“I had great plans for your father too, plans that went to waste when he took his own life. But I can be a kind person. I forgave him of his transgression because of the greater gift he gave me.” Cerelia pauses and fixes her eyes on me. “You.”
Cerelia takes a step down, her eyes never leaving mine. I feel the weight of her stare but show nothing, though I’m terrified on the inside.
“When your mother came to me, I knew what she was asking of me was even more difficult than what your grandmother asked. I knew it would take a great toll on her body, and I told her that, but she was determined.”
Cerelia takes a deep breath, laying her hand on her chest. “It wasn’t easy. I don’t know if anyone has told you or not, but there was more than one attempt.”
She pauses to see my reaction but I give her nothing. I will not give this woman any more power than she already has—or think she has—over me.
“In due time, the miracle of life was accomplished, bringing you into this world. It was a shame that your mother couldn’t pull through but she knew what the price mi
ght be. And now here you are, the biggest piece in the puzzle.”
I have to admit, all this is interesting, especially since I never knew who had helped my mother, or why. Now I know it was all about power. But what kind of power, and for what? That is still undetermined.
“I get all that. But why did you do all that? And what does Addie have to do with all this?”
Cerelia slowly descends the steps, reaching the laboratory floor. She looks like she’s going out to some dinner party, not destroying innocent lives. I also notice she has no shoes on under her lovely black dress.
“Addie really wasn’t in my plans, but Edwin insisted on uniting you two forever. All I wanted was your DNA, which I received years ago. Edwin was kind enough to bring me some of your blood and hair when he first approached me. I must say he’s very thorough.”
Eldrida walks up behind me, and places her hands on my shoulders. I can feel her calm power coursing through my body. “So that’s how you were able to manipulate and terrorize Racquel, isn’t it?”
“Why, hello. Eldrida, yes? I’ve heard so much about you. I’ve even sensed your unyielding desire to get rid of me.” Cerelia gives Eldrida a tight smile, continuing on in a silky voice.
“To answer your question, yes, that’s exactly how I tormented Racquel, but only on Edwin’s orders. I was ready for her arrival years ago. I believed she would more than willingly accept what we have been trying to create.” Cerelia gives Eldrida a menacing smile.
I take a step forward, shaking off Eldrida’s hands. I want to show Cerelia she doesn’t frighten me. “What exactly are you trying to create?”
“An army, one unlike anything before. The world will submit to their rule as we show them that uniqueness is not only a gift but something that should be respected. You, my dear, will reign over a vast and powerful army.”
An army? Why does everyone have this insane need to take over the world? It’s an impossible feat.
I’m about to tell her where she can shove her so-called dream of power, when Eldrida steps up beside me. I have a feeling things are fixing to get nasty.
Uniquely Unwelcome (The Shadow World, #1) Page 31