Blood Match

by K. A. Linde

  Reyna smiled faintly. She’d been right. But as soon as it was there, it disappeared. Everett’s involvement didn’t change anything. Her brothers were still unaccounted for. Everyone else was gone other than Tye, who Meghan had ordered into a chair at the table when he wouldn’t cease pacing.

  “Lower level access requested,” Tony said in the same tone he’d been using all day.

  “What?” Reyna gasped. Her head popped up.

  “Hold. Let me get that camera up.”

  He typed furiously on his computer. Everyone crowded in around him, hoping to get the first glimpse. The computer flickered and then the monitor revealed a person.

  Reyna’s breath released in a whoosh. Her legs gave out and she clutched at the table. “Drew.”

  “Should I grant him access?” Tony asked Sydney.

  “Gabe, go and meet him, then yes,” Sydney said.

  Reyna darted to her feet. “I’m going with him.”

  “You will remain here while we assess Drew and make sure there are no more threats,” Sydney said

  “You want a threat?” Reyna snarled. “Just try to keep me from my brother.”

  Then without a backward glance she stormed from the room. Gabe dashed after her. He put a hand on her shoulder to move into place beside her. But neither of them let up. They raced down the stairs. Their breathing in tandem with their movements. He was faster, but he didn’t let her get behind as they finally hit the lower level floor where Drew had come in.

  Gabe spoke into a radio. “We’re here.”

  “Access: three, two, one,” Tony counted down.

  The door slid open.

  Drew collapsed forward onto the floor. Reyna ran to him, cradling his head in her arms. She pushed his fine hair out of his eyes.

  “Drew,” she whispered. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “You’re alive. You’re okay now. You’re here.”

  She barely noticed Gabe check the underground garage entrance before manually shutting and locking the door back up.

  “He’s alone,” he said.

  “Drew, it’s Rey. I’m here.”

  “Rey,” he muttered, coughing up the same stuff that Tye had inhaled.

  “Yeah, big brother, it’s me. I’m here. You’re safe.”

  “Hey man,” Gabe said, leaning forward. “How did you get here? Did you see anyone else?”

  Drew pushed himself up onto his elbows. His eyes were red and hazy. “I…I walked and…I’m alone.” He coughed again. It was so hard that she thought he might cough up his lung. “Where is everyone else?”

  “We’re trying to figure that out,” Gabe said.

  Drew groaned and rolled in on himself.

  “Hey, hey, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Reyna asked.

  “Shoulder.”

  Reyna looked down at this shoulder and cursed. “He’s been shot. We need to get him upstairs. He needs medical attention.”

  “No,” Drew managed. “No, I need…Laura.”

  “Laura?” Reyna gasped. Horror sank in. “Why?”

  “Rey, I’m sorry.”

  “No, no, no,” she whispered. “Don’t be sorry.”

  “Brian.”

  Gabe radioed back to the conference room. “We need medical here. Carpenter has been shot in the shoulder. Plus smoke inhalation.”

  “Laura,” Drew repeated. “I have to tell Laura.”

  He struggled to his feet, but Gabe put his hand on his good shoulder, pushing him back down to the ground. “Hold it there, buddy. You can tell her when you’re patched up.”

  “I have to tell her,” he repeated, slipping in and out of conscious as he collapsed back onto the floor.

  “Tell her what?” Reyna asked.

  “They got Brian,” he whispered. “They captured Brian.”

  Then Drew passed out.

  * * *

  —

  Drew was rushed to the medical wing with Meghan and Washington both suiting up to remove the bullet from his shoulder. Reyna sat in the waiting room with Gabe as it all happened. She knew that she should tell Laura. That she should get Jodie. That anything else should probably matter at that moment. But…it didn’t.

  All that mattered was that Drew was in surgery.

  And that Brian was gone.

  Gone.

  Her heart broke. Shattered into a million pieces and scattered all over the floor. Gone was such a simple word. A word that didn’t mean half of what she was feeling.

  When she’d joined Visage, she’d done it for her brothers. All of this had been for them. And in the end, she was safe and they were fucked. What the hell had she done? What the hell had she brought them into?

  She didn’t know how long she sat there when suddenly Beckham was there. Tears fell from her eyes as he picked her up and crushed her to him. She put her arms around his neck and his wrapped around her waist. She stayed like that, letting him hold her, giving him all her grief.

  His lips landed on her hair. “Oh Little One.”

  “Brian,” she choked out.

  “I heard.”

  “It’s my fault.”

  “No.”

  “If I hadn’t joined Visage, they wouldn’t be here.”

  “No,” Beckham repeated more firmly. He pulled back to look down into her red-rimmed eyes. “Do not place the blame on anyone but the person who deserves it—William Harrington.”

  “Can we kill him now?”

  “Yes.” The murdering vampire who had single-handedly taken over a kingdom stood before her. And she was glad for it. She would need him to win this war.

  “Good.”

  His thumbs stroked across her cheeks, wiping away her tears. “Don’t let them break you.”

  “Only you,” she whispered.

  His lips were tender against hers. A direct contrast to his normal behavior. It settled her in a way nothing else had been able to.

  “There is a meeting. It will not begin without you.”

  “Will you wait with me?”

  “To the end of time.”

  * * *

  —

  Meghan came out of surgery. Dark circles ringed her eyes and her hands shook as she adjusted the bun on the top of her head.

  “He’s fine,” she told Reyna. “He told us the same information that Tye did. I think he inhaled more smoke than Tye though. We gave him a sedative so that he’d sleep. He’ll have to wait a few hours to tell Laura.”

  “Thank you,” Reyna said, hugging Meghan. “For everything.”

  “Of course.” She ran a hand over her face. “What a night.”

  “Becks said there’s a meeting.”

  She nodded. “I should check in with Jodie first. She’s been cagey lately.”

  “Yeah. I know. Let me know how she is.” Meghan stumbled forward a step and Reyna caught her. “Hey, maybe you should get some sleep. You’re no use to anyone if you’re dead on your feet.”

  “Everyone else is still awake. I can make it.”

  “When did you last sleep?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re not a vampire. Leave patients to Washington, okay?”

  “Maybe just a few hours,” she said reluctantly before departing.

  Reyna walked into the room. She played with Drew’s hair where he slept on a cot in the corner. She kissed his forehead. “We’re going to get Brian back, Drew. We’re going to kill the monster who did this. We’re going to fix everything. I promise.”

  Vengeance filled her cold heart. Savage and wild. Eager to devour anything that got in her way.

  Beckham saw the look on her face and offered her his hand. She took it, drinking in his strength as a beacon to ground her. The anger and Beckham were the only things keeping her afloat right now. If she gave up either, she did
n’t know where she’d be.

  They returned to the conference room where this had all started. Sydney remained at the head of the table. Tony had his computer up in front of him, typing away frantically still. Gabe had returned and Tye sat with a bandaged ankle next to him.

  To Reyna’s surprise and distaste, Penelope was also in attendance. Her eyes drifted down to where Beckham still held Reyna’s hand. She pursed her lips, then looked away.

  Washington followed Beckham and Reyna into the room.

  “As many of you know,” Sydney began, “early this evening we sent a scouting team to look into the reported farming camp. That all went wrong. It was an ambush. They knew we were coming. They planted the information for us to find. Which means we are no closer to locating the actual farming camps, we don’t know what the plans are to utilize these camps, and we have no idea how it will be implemented.”

  “What do we know?” Penelope asked curtly.

  Sydney shot furious eyes at her. “That nearly a dozen of our top soldiers were either taken or killed at this decoy camp. They are MIA. And they clearly wanted us to know about this. They sent Everett to us knowing he would reveal the information.”

  “Then how do we know that there actually is a feeding camp?” Penelope asked. “Perhaps it was all just a lie to make us look a fool.”

  “It’s not,” Beckham said. “I found correspondence at Visage with coded information about it. Once I knew what I was looking for, I could find it. They’re doing this. I don’t know when or where.”

  “Which means Harrington no longer trusts you,” Sydney said. “Which means you’re out.”

  Everyone was silent at the realization that their top double agent was out of the game. But it didn’t faze Reyna.

  She stood and slapped her hands on the table. “Then there’s only thing we can do. Only one thing we must do. We must stop the farms any way that we can. We cannot let them happen.”

  “And what do you propose?” Penelope asked with a sneer.

  “We create chaos. We kill Harrington.”

  Chapter 34

  Sydney nodded. “I agree.”

  “What?” Penelope asked in shock. “How would we even do that?”

  “I’ll draw him out,” Reyna said.

  “No,” Beckham said at once.

  Reyna continued as if she hadn’t heard him. It was so simple. So very simple. “I think it’s time we test that blood theory you have, Becks.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Absolutely not.”

  “If Harrington can sense me, he’ll come to me. I’ll lure him out into the open. You finish the job.”

  “There are a million things wrong with that scenario.”

  “Where would we do it?” Sydney asked.

  Beckham snarled at her. “You can’t be considering this.”

  “I consider every option. Reyna is willing. She made the suggestion. I’d be a fool not to consider it.”

  “She’d be bait.”

  “Yes,” Reyna said. “I’ll be bait. We just need to find a time when Harrington will be out in public. Somewhere not as guarded as Visage or wherever the hell that monster lives.”

  “No,” Beckham repeated.

  “You will not change my mind,” she told him with all the fires of a thousand suns.

  “I’m throwing a New Year’s Eve masquerade party for all the elite,” Penelope said. “Harrington was invited.”

  “That’s only five days away,” Gabe interjected. “Not much time.”

  “Then he’ll never see it coming,” Reyna said.

  “We could have access to the event?” Sydney asked Penelope, who nodded.

  Beckham flew out of his chair. “Have you all lost your mind? We are not sending Reyna out against Harrington.”

  “I’m going, Becks,” she told him. “And I need you there to finish it off.”

  “If Harrington is out of the way, then you have a play for president of Visage,” Sydney said. “Imagine what we could do, the changes we could implement, with you at the helm.”

  “You’re sure?” he asked Reyna.

  “Yes. Do this with me.”

  “I don’t want to risk you.”

  “Some risks are worth everything.”

  Her eyes said what she didn’t have to. You were. You were worth everything.

  “No,” Beckham said again.

  “I believe I am in charge of this operation, Mr. Anderson,” Sydney said formally. “I think it’s the start of a plan. We need to flesh it out, but if Reyna is willing, I think it’s the best chance we have.”

  “Sleep on it,” Beckham said.

  “I won’t change my mind,” she said defiantly.

  He bared his teeth in frustration. “We’ll talk about this later.”

  “Fine.”

  “It’s been a long night for everyone. Get some rest and meet back here at fifteen hundred hours,” Sydney said as a dismissal.

  With the decision all but made, Reyna felt a sharp sense of relief flood her system. She was doing something. Sacrificing anything to stop these farms from being implemented…to find a way to get Brian back.

  Beckham herded her toward the exit. Her exhaustion was winning out. She stumbled through her steps. Her eyes were drooping. The adrenaline was wearing off and she had nothing left to give.

  They were in the hallway when Beckham growled, “You can hardly walk.”

  “It’s been a long night.”

  “Should I carry you?”

  “I’m okay,” she lied.

  She was far from okay. Even further from fine. Catatonic was the correct word.

  “Beckham!” Penelope called behind them.

  They both stopped and turned around to face her. Reyna braced her hand against the wall to stay steady. She really didn’t want to deal with Penelope right now. Not after the night she’d had.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Reyna needs to rest.”

  “Okay…so she’ll rest. But where are you going?”

  His patience was clearly on a razor-thin edge when he responded, “I am going with her.”

  It felt like a line was drawn in the sand. A line that had been drawn over and over again. But never in this way. Never this forcefully. Never in front of Reyna.

  Penelope crossed her arms. “I can’t keep doing this.”

  “Then don’t.”

  “I’m the one who has always been there for you. I’m the one who changed your life. I’m the one who brought you to Elle,” Penelope said. She tilted her chin up. “It’s me. It’s always been me.”

  “You’re really doing this now?” he asked.

  “When else am I supposed to do it? I’m Penelope Sky. I’m the mayor. I’m educated and rich and gorgeous, Beckham. When are you going to get a clue that there is nothing better than what is right in front of your face? This charade has to end. You and I, we’re perfect together. We should be together,” she said, her voice raising an octave. “The mayor and a senior vice president of Visage together, working to make this a better future. That’s us! Everyone can see it but you. I deserve you.”

  Reyna’s eyebrows rose at the entitled tone of the conversation. “I…uh…maybe I should…” She hitched her thumb over her shoulder and started to back away from the conversation. She didn’t need to hear this. Beckham could handle the situation.

  “Oh no!” Penelope snapped, “By all means, stick around. It’s not like what I’m saying should come as any shock to you. I thought it was already obvious that I was better than you in every way.”

  “Penelope,” Beckham said, his voice cast low and disapproving.

  “What? We all know it’s true. I don’t accept that this ends any other way for me. There is no way that you fuck me, drink from me for over a year, and then leave me fo
r some warehouse rat. I always get what I want and what I want is you.”

  “No, you want what you cannot have. I have already told you time and time again that this is not what I want. We are not together,” Beckham said, putting himself between Penelope and Reyna. “I didn’t want to have this conversation in front of Reyna, but you’re leaving me no choice here.”

  “No choice?” Penelope laughed in a short burst. “You had every choice. You could have picked me! I’m a hell of a lot better than someone like her. Christ, look at me, Beckham. I am the most sought-after woman in this city. I could have anyone I want, but I want you. You and me against the world.”

  “Penelope, it was never you. You know it was never you. And you and I were over long before Reyna entered my life. So, don’t try to pin it on her,” he said, holding up his hand to forestall her protest. “We were a dalliance. We had fun. But I never gave you the impression that this was going to be long term.”

  “You never gave me the impression?” she nearly shouted. Her eyes widened, round as saucers. Her eyebrows lifted incredulously. Her mouth dropped open. “Are you fucking kidding me? I just…I can’t believe you’re even saying this. We were supposed to be together and now you’re painting me as the crazy and delusional one for believing the lies you told me. A fucking dalliance, Beckham?” She shook her head. “I have nothing to say to that absurd notion.”

  “I’m not painting you as anything. I’ve been saying all this from the start. We’re not together.”

  “Sure. Whatever. Go fuck yourself,” she spat. Then she turned on her heel and strode away from them, down the hallway.

  “Jesus,” Reyna whispered. “Maybe we should go after her.”

  Beckham shook his head. “Just let her go. She needs to blow off steam. I think reality finally sunk in, and she has to come to terms with it. I’ll talk to her after she’s cooled down again.”

  * * *

  —

  Reyna collapsed into bed as soon as she entered her room. Beckham followed behind her, carefully stripping her out of her clothes and then tucking her into bed. Her eyes fluttered shut as soon as she hit the pillow.