“I have to admit there have been a few times when Faydra came in handy. You’ve never seen someone go from zero-to-bitch in three seconds flat, at least not like she could whenever someone questioned her. Like the time I got in trouble at school for having too many tardy slips. She came flying up there and chewed out old Mr. Carver for daring to threaten me with suspension and promising he would call the truancy court on her. She actually picked up the little ‘principal’ nameplate off his desk and put it through the window behind his head!” Jessica said, laughing a little at the memory.
“Wow, I would have loved to have seen the look on his face when she did that! I bet he needed to go put on a dry pair of pants!” Conlan said, joining in the fun.
Jessica jumped up from the bed and stood over him for a moment, staring him directly in the face. His amusement died down to confusion as he watched her.
“What’s up?” he asked, still reclining casually.
“Oh, nothing. Just giving you time to think about your answer.” She stared down at him, waiting for him to understand.
“What answer?”
“You don’t know? You sure you don’t want to think about it a little longer and get back to me?” she asked, her tone becoming icy as she stared into his eyes, daring him to lie to her again. She waited, her hands twitching into fists as she thought about having to fight him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The principal of our school,” Jessica said quietly, menacingly. “His name isn’t Mr. Carver, it’s Warren. Missus Diane Warren. And I didn’t tell you my dad was sick, I only told you that he died. And I never said how he died. You said he should have made other plans for me after he got sick.”
Conlan’s face became stricken as he realized his mistake. He paused for only a beat before sitting up suddenly and standing in front of Jessica, taking her face in both of his hands and coming closer to her so she could hear him as he whispered.
“There’s no time, so listen to me carefully. I didn’t rescue you at your house, I was there to kidnap you. This is all a trick. You have to protect yourself,” he began, speaking earnestly. “Don’t trust anyone, because none of this is real. None of it. The car, the people in the room, it was all a hallucination. Don’t believe anything. Just protect yourself.”
She opened her eyes wide at his insistent announcement but was even more shocked when the door to her room flew open and armed guards grabbed Conlan, wrenching his arms behind his back. His screams to her to protect herself faded down the hallway before they were silenced once and for all with a sickening thud.
Chapter 12
“Speak, Faydra,” Rageeb ordered as though she was a dog, a condescending smile playing at the corners of his mouth. He knew how this would turn out today, he’d already made certain of that. This little game was only a momentary delay, and who knew? It might even be fun to watch her squirm and writhe, digging herself into a hole that she would never escape from.
Faydra cast a glance of pure disgust and loathing in Rageeb’s direction, almost hateful enough to make him lunge at her from the throne-like chair his attendants had brought forward. She straightened her spine and squared her shoulders, ready to address the council with as much dignity as her broken frame could project.
“I will answer any questions that I’m able to,” she began. “Know that I am bound by agreements to keep certain things confidential. If I come to a question that I am forbidden to answer, you have my promise that I will supply you with the name of the person who made that decision for me.”
The council members nodded appreciatively, conceding that her willingness to offer up the names of her superiors was far more assistance than most witnesses at their trials were willing to provide. They conferred with each other in twos and threes before asking the first question.
“Why did you fail to destroy the creature?” one member asked pointedly, immediately supporting Rageeb’s position that Faydra was guilty of treason. Rageeb made a note to have the councilman’s wife released from her kidnappers as soon as the trial was over.
“I was under direct orders from my agency not to destroy the creature. They needed to gather more information on it before they could decide to eliminate it,” she explained, fighting to keep her voice even and her nervousness from showing in her tone.
“Are you implying that the agency was more interested in the scientific value of a known killer than the safety of our people?” another member demanded before looking to Rageeb for approval. When Rageeb smiled, she breathed a smile sigh of relief, hoping she would be reunited with her infant son soon.
“Not at all, Your Excellency. The agency was far more afraid that there were others like it, and therefore ordered me to maintain a watch on the creature at all times and to report back to them with regular daily updates. They felt that killing the creature would simply take out that one lone threat, leaving us all vulnerable to future attacks from others of its kind.”
“Then Faydra must be lying to protect her own skin. What proof do you have that there were more, or that anyone ever even suggested such a thing?”
“I’m not lying. No, I do not have proof of the existence of other creatures, but there were many in the agency—officials in high positions, I might add—who pointed to the increasing numbers of attacks. They felt there was no way it could be the work of only one being, and one that was still so young at that. I simply had my orders which were to guard the thing until such time as the agency decided to eliminate it. The belief in more of its kind is simply an agency decision and not something I was entitled to know.”
“Tell us then, once it became apparent that the creature had to be destroyed, why did you wait? Why did you let it escape?” a council member asked, the accusing tone in his voice replaced more by fearful curiosity than venom.
“I did not knowingly let her go. She had never strayed from the property before, and after it became obvious that her powers were growing, I immediately called the agency for an update and for new orders. I was given the order to eliminate the threat, and by the time I received the order the creature had already fled.”
“And that’s what you expect us to believe? We’re simply supposed to take your word at face value, when you’ve demonstrated a complete lack of regard for this council in the past, undermining the very important work that we do? You have a long history of letting us down… why should we believe you now?” Rageeb demanded with a sneer.
“Because I’m telling you the truth. I’ve already offered the names of my superiors who can confirm my version of events. If, for some reason, they are unwilling to admit that I acted under orders, then I am confident that they regard the secrecy of my assignment so highly that they would sacrifice me to protect the work that I did. If that is the case, I will willingly face my sentence as it is vital to all of our security.”
Faydra’s offer to accept her fate caused a visible shift in the demeanor of the council. Rageeb began to see his carefully laid plan for revenge dissolve before his eyes, ripping away any hope of punishment against the one who had wronged him more than anyone else alive. He struggled to hold himself back; just as Faydra had already known, he knew that any display of his temper would be seen as a sign of weakness and therefore guilt.
The last thing he needed was for his carefully crafted charges against the woman to result in his own death, especially a death as gruesome as this council was long known for.
The council members gathered together to huddle and whisper, each fighting for what was needed. Several of them had far too much at stake to let Faydra go, and they argued vehemently for her guilt. Each of them looked to Rageeb from time to time to make sure he took notice of their work on his behalf, eager to please him and get their loved ones back. He paid them no attention, his focus locked on watching Faydra’s face for any sign of remorse or—better yet—suffering and fear.
Watching her plead for her life would be the highlight of his crusade against her, leaving her act
ual sentencing to be almost anticlimactic in the face of enjoying her suffering. Her death would be a wonderful and well-deserved end to the pain and humiliation she’d cost him when she left, but these moments of uncertainty had to be almost as agonizing for her as actually dying. And he loved every minute of it.
The tenor of the discussion grew in intensity, rising like a tidal wave of mixed emotions. Those who heard the truth of Faydra’s words battled against those who had a vested interest in her demise, whether they meant to or not.
While the group debated and Rageeb looked on entertained, Faydra kept her head held high and her back straight, determined not to live her last few minutes on earth wringing her hands or hanging her head in shame. She had done what was required of her, and anyone who wanted to question her motives or her loyalty would think what he will. She was not going to let anyone have the satisfaction of seeing her in shame.
“We’ve reached a decision,” a council member said, stepping forward with a grim look on his face.
Chapter 13
Jessica froze after Conlan was hauled away, but she didn’t have enough time to process what had just happened before the door opened again and more armed guards entered the room that now seemed much too small. They grabbed her by the arms and began to half-carry, half-drag her towards the door. She fought as best she could, screaming pointlessly for someone to help her, and was only quieted by the full force of a guard’s baton taking out the back of her legs. She collapsed to the floor in a jumbled heap and was hauled back up beneath her arms and dragged towards the door, her legs following along behind her body limply.
They moved down the dark hallway, but it was too hard for Jessica to see anything other than the floor beneath her. A cold sensation that crept up from her ankles told her she’d been dragged through something wet, hopefully no more sinister than plain water.
A wet, stone hallway…
Jessica strained to lift her head to look forward, knowing in her gut what she’d see before she ever got there. The dot of white light ahead, growing larger as they raced towards it, mocked her hurt. She knew all too well what waited for her on the other side of that door… the woman on the table, the hisses urging her to finish it, the dead eyes that would fly open. It was the dream all over again, only she knew this time she was awake. And there was no one coming to save her.
She struggled to dig her toes into the stone floor and push away from her captors, but they were too strong for her. The ends of her shoes dug painfully into her toenails as she fought anyway.
Too soon, they halted in front of the door. Jessica almost fell on her face as they released their hold on her, clearly expecting her to move forward through her dream scenario on her own. She took her time standing up, knowing that as soon as she did they would force her to open the door. When she finally stood up, aided by their overeager efforts to get the job done, Jessica turned to face the guards.
“I’m not going in there,” she announced in a shaky voice that lacked any confidence.
“You don’t have a choice,” one faceless guard replied from inside his helmet. The other guard turned the doorknob and pushed the door open while the first one placed a hand on Jessica’s chest and shoved her inside. She fell to the floor and slid some distance but whirled back around to scramble for the door. Before she could reach it, the first guard reached into the room just long enough to grab the knob and pull the door shut, locking it behind him.
Jessica felt for the door and pressed her back against it, unwilling to move any further forward than she had to. This very room had been the stuff of her nightmares for as long as she could remember, and she couldn’t have forced her feet to move forward if she’d wanted to. She managed to stand still with her gaze averted to the floor, staring at the area just in front of her shoes. No blood yet, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t lingering elsewhere in the room.
As she slowly willed herself to look forward, her eyes took in the rest of the stone floor. There was no blood, no signs of carnage, but of course there wouldn’t be. She hadn’t gotten to her task of destruction yet. She looked to the bottom of the table in the middle, eyeing the bolts that kept it firmly in place. Up the single wide shaft of the table, up to the cloth that draped down the sides, up to the raised mound of a body beneath a thin sheet, the straps of the shackles at the corners of the table disappearing as they snaked their way beneath the white cloth.
Jessica squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she raised her face to look at the body on the table. She had memorized every feature of the woman over the years, seeing her face in her sleep and learning to recognize every single line and wrinkle in her pale skin. Before she could open her eyes and confirm the woman’s presence in the room with her, she heard her name spoken aloud.
“Jessica!” a woman’s voice said imploringly. “Help me!”
She snapped her eyes open at the sound of Faydra’s voice calling her name. On the table, bound by the shackles, her stepmother lay fighting against the restraints, hopeful for a moment now that Jessica was in the room with her.
“Help me out of here,” she begged. “Please. Undo these straps, I know how to get us both out of here.”
This was new. Even when the dream had suddenly shifted on her—had it really only been a day or two ago?—Faydra had certainly not been allowed to speak or beg for her life. Jessica was conflicted. She didn’t want to face the prospect of ripping Faydra’s heart out and eating it again, but at the same time, there was something so tempting about it, too. The more she let herself be pulled into the rhythm of her dream, the more she wanted to finish the task, evil stepmother or not. Faydra’s heart called out to her, every bit as much as the woman’s pleading voice grated her last nerve.
This was the woman who had tormented her for so long, who’d caused every single hurt Jessica had felt in the past ten years. Blood lust or not, revenge would be almost too easy, too natural.
“Don’t do it, Jessica,” Conlan’s voice said too close to her ear. She whirled around and came face to face with him, knowing it was impossible for him to still be here. Was he asleep somewhere, and had managed to work his way into her dream? No, that was impossible. That would only work if she was dreaming, but Jessica had already confirmed that this was all too real.
“This is a trap,” he pressed. “You can’t do this.”
Jessica rolled her eyes at his urgency. He wasn’t even really here, so why should she listen to Dream Conlan, especially when Faydra’s heartbeat called out to her? She took a step forward towards the table, noting the triumphant smile on her stepmother’s face when the woman clearly thought she had commanded her teenaged stepdaughter to unleash her. Conlan hissed nearby.
“Jessica, stop it! Don’t let them use you! They just want you to take the blame for killing her! They’re trying to kill two birds with one stone!” He grabbed Jessica’s arm and tried to turn her around to face him, to look into his eyes and see that he was telling the truth. Instead, her protective instincts kicked in, first ignited by having to flee from her stepmother’s house but fully engaged now that a pitifully weak stranger stood between her and the satisfaction that could only come from warm blood. She swung at him in the same motion that carried her around, letting the momentum of his pull add force behind her punch. Conlan stumbled backwards, clutching his face. The blood that seeped out from between his clenched fingers only spurred Jessica onward in her quest for flesh.
Holy hell, what am I doing? she thought to herself, watching from somewhere above herself as her feet carried her forward. This isn’t the dream, so why am I being gross? And why can I see myself?
Her vantage point overhead gave her one advantage she’d never had before: sight. From this view she could finally see the faces Conlan had talked about, and she watched them as they eagerly watched her. The expressions on their cold faces told her that Conlan was right, they were out for blood. They were going to let her do her worst to Faydra to rid them of her, then they were going to pounce on Jessica.
/> The sacrifice, they had called her. You must sacrifice yourself. This is what it has always been about, a plan set in motion from even before she was born. She would kill Faydra and destroy the person they wanted to remove, then they would return the favor by using her own kill instincts against her.
Even knowing this, Jessica was powerless to stop herself. She had become the creature the others had feared, and once this horrific act was over they would destroy her.
But I’m not evil! I’m not a killer! she protested silently, begging them to hear her even though she knew they could not. Even if they could hear her, they would never listen.
As her feet continued forward across the dark gray floor, Conlan tried desperately to stop her again. He protected his face this time with an arm thrown out in front of him as he reached for her, but she easily threw him off again, not even turning around when she heard him hit the floor. The only thing she could see was her victim, the heartbeat actually visible through the woman’s skin as Jessica’s heightened senses took over. She moved until she stood next to Faydra, looking down at her hungrily.
Faydra realized too late what Jessica had become. She’d fought so long to keep the girl from ever knowing who she was or what she was capable of, but it was too late now.
“Jessica, before you continue, you have to know,” Faydra began, resigning herself to what was about to take place. “You have to know who you are.”
The girl’s eyes focused only briefly at the unheard-of softness in her stepmother’s tone. This wasn’t the woman who had kicked her down the stairs or let her starve for days at a time to punish her for some small childhood transgression. This was a woman on her deathbed, even if she herself could only barely acknowledge it. Her confessing tone told Jessica all she needed to hear.
“Jessica, I’m your real mother.”
Stolen Hearts: Book 1 (Grim's Labyrinth Series) Page 6