by May, W. J.
Yes, whether she liked it or not, Gabriel was certainly with them now.
He awoke only once in the night, bolting upright and staring around as if coming to from a nightmare. His eyes widened in confusion when he saw the three of them sleeping around him, and widened some more when Rae leaned over to him in the dark.
“Shhh.” She put her finger over her lips. “It took forever for them to fall asleep.”
Again, Gabriel stared around, not understanding. “I don’t remember what—”
“We gave you some drugs to help with the pain,” she explained gently as she moved and perched on an armrest beside him. Devon twitched in his sleep, but did not wake, and the rest of them were out cold. “Here,” she conjured another dose, “this should help take the edge off.”
She offered it, but Gabriel just stared at her, looking almost wary.
“Why’re you helping me?” he finally asked.
Their eyes locked and she gave him a gentle smile. “Because you helped me. Whatever you did before—you saved my life, Gabriel. And then almost lost your own. You’re one of us now.”
He took a second to absorb this before glancing around at the sleeping friends, assessing them in a whole new light. Then he took the syringe from Rae’s hand. Without a bit of hesitation, he stuck it into the crook of his elbow and closed his eyes as the medication flowed through his veins.
When he slowly opened his eyes again, he was visibly relaxed, staring at Rae with a dazed, vaguely familiar, cocky smile. “That’s…good to know.”
She laughed silently, stroking back his hair without thinking about it. “Yeah, well, for us too. Not only did you make a terrible enemy, but I’m afraid we’re going to need all hands on deck in the days ahead. You might not like what you’ve signed on for.”
“It comes with perks.” He grinned, laying his head back on the pillow. “I’m looking at one of them…”
Rae’s eyes flickered automatically to Devon before she shook her head with a rueful smile. “Really? He just spent the entire day stitching you up and you’re going to do that right now?”
“What can I say?” He shrugged slightly. “It’s the drugs talking.”
They both grinned at each other.
“But seriously, Rae…it’s good to know.” Without him seeming to notice, his fingers started tracing hers, skating lightly across and drawing absentminded shapes.
It’s the drugs talking. She casually pulled away and got to her feet. “Goodnight, Gabriel.”
“Goodnight.” He leaned back with a tired but content sigh as she made her way to her room. She had almost reached the door when he called again in a whisper only she’d be able to hear. “Rae?”
There was still a slight smile on his face, but his eyes were clear and focused as they locked on hers in the dark.
“I know what you did.”
Her heart stopped in her chest. A wave of panic rushed up from her toes, and she hastened to turn her look of terror into a polite frown. “Excuse me?”
His eyes twinkled.
“I know what you saw.”
“What? I mean, no. Impossible. I don’t know what you’re—” But she might as well have saved her denial. As soon as he’d said the words, the drugs took hold, and Gabriel fell into the most peaceful of sleep.
* * *
“You need to read it.”
Rae shook her head, staring across the counter at the bloody envelope. “I don’t even want to. What good will it do?” Her eyes flicked to Gabriel, still sleeping on the couch. “And at what cost?”
“Do you want me to read it for you?” Molly pressed, leaning over her cup of coffee.
Both girls had woken up at the crack of dawn and had stumbled upon the letter from opposite sides of the kitchen at the same time. In the trauma of everything that had happened yesterday, the actual purpose for Gabriel’s visit and subsequent beating had been forgotten.
“You need to read it,” Molly said again, following her gaze. “You owe him that.”
Rae sighed and picked it up with delicate fingers, holding it briefly in her hands.
One lousy piece of paper. That’s what Gabriel almost lost his life for.
Pulling in a deep breath, she sliced open the top and removed the letter, smoothing it down on the counter before she read:
My dear, sweet Rae,
I see you uncovered my assistant. Clever girl. I was very sorry to have to manipulate you in any way, but extreme times call for extreme measures. I’m sending what’s left of him back to you, for you to do with as you please. He’s of no further use to me.
I was also very sorry to read the letter you sent. I had hoped that after witnessing the treachery of your own Council, after seeing the potential in so many hybrids, your eyes might be opening to the light. But the fault lies with me. I can see now that I have pushed you too fast, too hard.
You see, my darling girl, there is no ‘saying no’ to me. There is no resisting. You and I were gifted with everlasting life, and therefore our union is only a matter of time. This truth, however, is something you have to come to on your own terms, in your own time.
Fortunately, time is something of which we are eternally assured. And if time is something you need, then I will give it to you. I’ll not be attempting to interfere in your life again. Not until you’re ready. If normalcy is what you desire, then by all means, follow your heart. I know where it will eventually lead. And I will be patiently waiting.
Until we speak again,
J. Cromfield
She and Molly looked at each other in disgust as the boys began to slowly stir. Rae’s eyes rested on each one of them for a moment before stopping on Gabriel.
Cromfield had done that to Gabriel.
A man who had been slowly ruining their lives.
A man who the Privy Council refused to believe was alive.
That was about to change.
“Good morning,” Devon murmured, stretching out his arms as he walked over before pulling her in for a quick kiss. Then his eyes fell on the letter lying between them, and his whole face darkened. “What did it say?” he asked nervously. “What did he tell you?”
Molly glanced at Rae before answering tentatively, “It…might have been almost good news?” She phrased it as a question. “I mean, he said he was going to leave her alone. Give her time to live a normal life before… let’s just focus on that first part, I guess. He’s backing off.”
“Yeah—but we aren’t,” Rae said softly, her eyes burning a hole in the letter.
“Honey, please. I know that look,” Devon pleaded. “Whatever it is you’re planning, let’s just tone it down a couple hundred degrees.”
Her eyes flashed as she shot him a sudden grin. “Oh, babe, I think by now you know me better than that…”
Chapter 14
A nervous aide rushed down the hall and knocked hesitantly on the door to the president’s office. He had only spoken to Carter once by himself, and he found the man overwhelmingly intimidating on a good day. He didn’t exactly know how he was going to say this to him now.
“Come in,” Carter barked.
Security had been heightened since the recent break-in, and the adjustment was still setting everyone on edge. The aide pushed his way inside past two hulking guards, and stood nervously in the center of the office. It took a second for Carter to look up from his papers to see what was taking so long.
“Speak,” he demanded.
“Um, sir, I don’t really know how to say this…”
Carter shot him a dry glare. “Why don’t you try?”
“Well, you see, sir… There’s a Rae Kerrigan at the front gate to see you.”
The two men stared at each other for a long time before Carter buried his face in his hands. “Of course there is.”
Five minutes later, Rae, Devon, Julian, and Molly stepped into the office, surrounded on all sides by heavily-armed guards. Rae had flat-out begged the others to stay behind with Gabriel—who was in no state to m
ove—but they had just as firmly insisted they all come along.
“We’re in this together,” Molly had said, pulling on her coat. “You said it yourself.”
“Besides,” Devon winked, “how are we ever going to get that quasi-normal life I promised if we don’t get this taken care of first?”
And so the four of them surrendered at the gates of Guilder; they had just one request. A request that was more of a demand the way Rae phrased it: to plead their case before the Council.
“Miss Kerrigan,” Carter greeted her stiffly as the same crowd of men she’d seen just a few days before flooded into the room, parting around her like she was contagious. “I hope you know what you’re doing here…”
Rae steadily held his gaze. ‘Something that should’ve been done a long time ago.”
The room settled down quickly with old snake-eyes, a man she thought Carter had called Victor, bringing up the rear. He fastened his colorless eyes upon her face as he sank down into a chair, staring as if he could obliterate her on the spot through nothing but force of will.
“Gentlemen,” she said once they were all settled, her voice ringing loud and clear, “thank you for coming. I’m sorry to have…summoned you, but seeing as how the lot of you has interfered in my life many times over the last few years, I felt I was owed.”
“Remember what we said about being respectful,” Devon muttered behind her.
She resisted a smile, but sarcastically indulged him. “My esteemed members of the Privy Council,” she threw down the letter on the table before them, “that letter was delivered to me yesterday morning. It’s from Jonathon Cromfield.”
There was a split second delay, like the room was waiting for the sound to catch up, before they erupted in unison, “That’s utterly ridiculous—”
“Impossible!”
“We should just arrest her and be done with it.”
“Carter, what’s the meaning of—”
Rae raised her hand to silence everyone in the room. “I saw him in a vision, murdering my father and kidnapping my mother. I’ve met his associates—people raised their entire lives in his cult of terror. I’ve found his secret hiding place, under the catacombs of St. Stephen’s Church right here in London. I’ve talked to him on the phone.” She paused for effect. “He is alive, gentlemen. And I know what he’s after.”
Victor turned slowly in his chair to face Carter.
“James,” he was the only one Rae had ever heard call Carter that besides her mom, “as acting president of this organization, it is your duty to stop this lunacy before it continues a second longer. The girl has clearly come unhinged—just like her father—and has already started to take your agents down with her. To claim that this man, who lived hundreds of years, ago could possibly be—”
“He is alive,” Carter interrupted him softly, “I’ve seen him as well.”
Rae blinked in astonishment, and for the first time felt a surge of hope. She had done this very much without Carter’s permission, and had had no idea whether he would go along with it or not.
But apparently he had made his decision as well.
This time, instead of exploding into noise, the room went dead quiet.
Rae might be a ‘crazy Kerrigan,’ but Carter’s word was above reproach. To hear him suddenly supporting her…what did it mean?
Victor’s eyes flashed. “You can’t be serious.”
“I have never been more serious about anything in my life.” Carter got slowly to his feet. “I’ve had my suspicions for some time about dark forces infiltrating this Council. We’ve had our share of leaks over the years. It is to be expected with an organization operating with such a reach, but since Miss Kerrigan has come of age and entered Guilder, the coincidences have become too many to ignore. Lanford. Kraigan. Miss Jones. In every scenario—Miss Kerrigan was a target.”
“But you just said it yourself!” Victor exclaimed. “All these dark coincidences started happening the day Miss Kerrigan arrived at Guilder!”
“What are you suggesting, Victor?” Carter asked softly. “That Miss Kerrigan repeatedly attacked herself? Killed her own father when she was a toddler? Kidnapped her mother? Miss Kerrigan is not the enemy here. I tried to get you all to realize that by urging the Council to hire her on as an agent. To let her prove herself to you once and for all. But there is a force at play here that goes far beyond Miss Kerrigan. And yes, I’m referring to Jonathan Cromfield.”
“It’s simply not possible,” another man spoke up from the end of the table. “Cromfield died years ago. How could he still be influencing changes now?”
“Because he’s immortal, just like me,” Rae interjected, bringing the attention of the room back to her. “Because he’s a hybrid, just like me.”
Another murmur went through the group, but this time she stared them down coldly, remembering the faces of each and every one of the hybrids Cromfield was trying to kill.
“He’s been tracking them down—harvesting them for their powers, containing it in some kind of serum. For the month after graduation, my friends and I were trying to get to them first—to warn them to run for their lives.” Her eyes narrowed. “Something we wouldn’t have had to do if they weren’t already on the run to begin with. That’s what we’ve been doing. Running all over the world, fighting your battles for you. And for what? So I can come home and be arrested?”
She slowly shook her head, and for the first time she thought she saw scattered flashes of guilt. A few of the men at the table still refused to meet her eyes, but a few of them were looking at her with an honest streak of remorse. Some simply look baffled by the whole proceeding.
“And what about the device?!” Victor jumped to his feet. “You stole it from this very—”
It fell between them on the table with a loud clang.
“Only because Cromfield was going to steal it first. He’d already recovered one of the pieces, so again, my friends and I went to work gathering up the others…to protect them. To protect you.”
She grabbed the other piece from Molly and threw it onto the table along with the first. The entire Council was silent as a grave, watching, but they were on the edge of their seats. This was proof. Proof of her innocence. Proof of her trust. Even if it was entirely undeserved.
Even if it was entirely broken.
“Hear this now because I’m only going to say it once: I am not my father.”
Across the table, Carter nodded his head, beaming.
“This is my father’s work—the entire culmination of his life. I’m handing it over to you. Because, despite what some of you will think, despite what I’ve been fighting to overcome since the day I set foot at your school, I’M NOT SIMON KERRIGAN!”
The relief of finally shouting the words was so strong, she could have cried. How long had she been waiting to say them? How long had they been weighing her down?
“I’m not something to be feared or kept in a dark cell—I have never, in my entire life, done anything at all but protect you people; protect you from the outside world, protect you from monsters that have infiltrated your very organization. Well, no longer.”
In a blur of speed, all of the ten guards flanking them fell to the ground. Not hurt, but stunned. Curtesy of a fallen Angel.
“If you think I’m going back under arrest, you’re crazy. And if you think I’m coming back to work for you, you’re crazy too. I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. I’m not on anyone’s side anymore. I’m on my own side. I’m going to stop this lunatic before he kills one more innocent person. And I’m going to live my life free to make my own choices. Free from him. Free from you.”
Without another word, she turned and walked out the door.
She thought maybe they were going to have to run. Maybe the entire speech would be for nothing, and the second it was finished the entire Council would close in on them and place them all under permanent arrest.
But they didn’t. And the four friends walked out into the sunset of thei
r own free will.
They could hear the aftermath of Rae’s speech as they headed across the Guilder grounds. The very foundations of the Privy Council began to splinter and re-adjust as the world in which it operated was challenged to the core. But for once, Rae and her friends didn’t care.
They simply continued walking until they had stepped outside the gates. Once there, they paused at the top of the drive, gazing out at the setting sun.
“I don’t know what comes next,” Rae said softly, staring out towards the horizon.
A soft breeze blew between them, stirring back their hair as they braced themselves for whatever was to happen next.
“I don’t know either.” Devon took her hand. “But we’ll figure it out. Together.”
* * *
It was dark by the time they touched back down in Scotland. The four of them had stayed very close together on the journey over, not saying much, just taking comfort in the proximity as they made their way slowly back to the house.
Beth was already waiting, her anxious face framed in the window as they pulled their rental car into the drive. Carter must have called her and told her what happened. Rae took a deep breath, slipping her hand back into Devon’s as the four of them trudged up the gravel path to the house.
Would her mom be angry with her? Furious even? She certainly had every right to be. Not only had Rae risked re-arrest by returning to Guilder, but she had laid open every plan, placed every card on the table for all the world to see.
She happened to think that was a good thing. But her mom…? She wasn’t so sure…
“Hey,” she said tentatively as they stepped into the warm kitchen. “So I’m sure Carter’s already called and told you the whole thing, but—”
“Honey,” Beth interrupted, “there’s going to be time for all of that and more later, I promise. But right now…well I’m afraid there’s someone you need to see.”