02 Blood Roses - Blackthorn

by Lindsay J. Pryor

  Or worse.

  No – they couldn’t know. It was a secret only ever passed on by word of mouth from the patrons to their serryn wards. A secret each of them guarded with their lives.

  A secret the Higher Order could never know.

  She had to get out of there. She had to get out of there now. Somehow.

  She stood, wrapped her arms around her chest and turned to face the room. So many of his beautiful books lay limp and discarded on the floor. All she had as an indication of his civility, his humanity, lay damaged and torn – cast aside so easily in his fury.

  That was the real Caleb she saw in those moments – the vampire who wasn’t holding back to play her to his own ends. That was the true Caleb – not the vampire who had scrutinised her so curiously before they were interrupted, the ice in his eyes, for just a moment, melting, revealing more than just a cold killer. The reassuring grip of a vampire she thought was shielding her from the enemy until she heard the facts spill from Feinith’s lips – the torture and depravity and cruelty they had shared. Worse, had enjoyed.

  Caleb, whom she now knew had every reason to hate her kind with every fraction of his being.

  A hatred she understood and reluctantly empathised with only too well.

  She stepped amidst the chaos and fell to her knees on the floor. Closing the covers on the books nearest her, she realigned broken spines before putting the books in neat piles.

  She sank back on her haunches.

  Just as she’d sensed from the moment she got that call from Alisha, just as she’d sensed it the minute she’d arrived in Blackthorn, there was no going back. Even if they did stand a hope in hell of getting out of there, they’d both be checked and tested at the border back into Summerton. If they couldn’t convince the authorities Alisha had been an unwilling feeder, she would be banned to Lowtown alone to fend for herself. They could discover Leila was a serryn and then that would be it – the authorities would own her, leaving Alisha truly alone.

  Things were never going to be the same again.

  And she had to accept that.

  But she and Alisha would get out of Blackthorn, even if it was only as far as Lowtown. They would get out of there – away from Caleb and Jake, away from the Higher Order. They’d be together and they’d get through it.

  She stood and scanned the room. He could be gone for a matter of minutes or another hour, but he would be back.

  She needed something to fight with.

  She looked towards his bedroom and strode across the threshold. The rain smattered against the sealed window, drawing her attention to the window seat tucked in the corner to her left before she tentatively scanned the room. The bed directly ahead looked dangerously soft, the pillows plumped up invitingly. To her right was an ajar door to what she could see was an en suite. Between that and a double wardrobe to the right was a chair – a chair on which she saw the shirt he had worn in the dungeon, and something poking out from beneath it.

  Blood thrummed in her ears.

  She strode over without registering the journey, her gaze locked on the corner of the partially exposed leather wrap. She pushed the shirt aside, unfolded one side of the leather and stared down at the syringes.

  Her heart pounded.

  The thought sickened her at what her blood would do to him, for more reasons than she felt comfortable allowing herself to acknowledge. But it was either that or the unthinkable alternative.

  She didn’t owe him anything. Anything at all.

  She removed one of the clean syringes from the sleeve and stared down at the tip. She hated needles. Always had. Her first and only other encounter with needles before Caleb was after her mother’s murder. The Serryn Union had to be sure. They’d assured her it was only for lab tests, where her blood would be mixed with a sample of vampire blood. She’d gone along with her grandfather’s advice.

  She remembered the look on his face the night he came to pick her up. They’d had the vampire’s body removed and with it any evidence of what had happened. But they’d had to leave her mother there to be found. The official story she’d been told to give was that her mother had been called away by someone at the play so had asked her grandfather to come and pick Leila up, and that was the last they had heard of her.

  Leila still didn’t know what was harder – watching her mother die or leaving her still-warm body abandoned and alone in that dark alley.

  And that’s what she had to remember. What they were capable of. What Caleb was capable of. She wouldn’t allow herself to be next. And she certainly wouldn’t sit there helplessly waiting for them to decide her fate, let alone Alisha’s.

  Grasping the syringe, she tucked herself away in the bathroom where she would hopefully be able to clear away any evidence if Caleb did return.

  Inside was plush and immaculate. A simple roll-top bath and glass shower cubical sat opposite the toilet. A basin and towel rail sat directly ahead, plump towels draped over each rung.

  She leaned back against the roll-top bath but, with her legs too weak to sustain her, she lowered herself cross-legged to the floor.

  Her hand trembled, her palms perspiring as she placed the needle against the crook of her left arm, relieved Caleb had opted for the right arm in the dungeon.

  She immediately pulled it away again, the prospect of it piercing her skin turning her throat arid.

  She rested her head back against the cold ceramic.

  Taking a deep and steadying breath, she clenched and unclenched her hand to encourage the blood to flow. Barely able to look, she placed the tip of the needle over one of the thicker veins. She breathed and exhaled deeply, and slid the needle in.

  She leaned her head back again as she drew back the plunger, the pain making her bite into her lower lip, making her light-headed, a hot shiver flushing over her. The nausea was overwhelming. She couldn’t even bear to look for the first few seconds but then forced herself to see if she had taken enough. Seeing the syringe a third filled with her blood, she pulled the needle out and lifted the crook of her arm quickly to her mouth. She sucked to try and curb the pain and stem the flow.

  She needed to hide the syringe somewhere. She couldn’t just go at him with it – he’d snatch it off her in an instant. She needed it to be somewhere where she could get her hand on it with ease.

  Somewhere he wouldn’t notice. Somewhere she could catch him unexpectedly.

  She looked back down at the syringe.

  And she also needed to have a backup in case she failed.

  ❄ ❄ ❄

  Caleb descended the steps into the lounge and joined Jake at the bar.

  Jake closed Leila’s purification book and pushed it aside. ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘I’ve bought us some time,’ Caleb said, easing up onto the stool beside him as Jake poured him a drink. ‘Only until tomorrow night, but it’s something.’

  ‘How did you manage that?’

  ‘I told her I wanted to make it worth my while. It helped that she thinks I’m going to concede. You know Feinith.’

  ‘But it’s nearly dawn, Caleb. What if Leila proves you right? What if she has saved me? There’s no way you can hand her over. What then?’

  Caleb knocked back his drink, reached for the bottle and unscrewed the cap to pour himself another. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.’ He glanced over his shoulder out at the pale grey sky through the sealed terrace doors, before looking back at his brother. ‘How are you feeling?’

  Jake knocked back a mouthful of whisky, his hand tense, his eyes lowered. He shrugged. ‘Fine.’

  He didn’t look fine. But then he couldn’t expect him to.

  ‘Have you checked on Alisha lately?’ Caleb asked.

  ‘She’s out of it. Probably will be for hours.’ Jake knocked back the remains of his drink before pouring himself another. ‘Not that that’s a bad thing.’

  ‘You really care about her, don’t you?’

  ‘We look after our own, Caleb, that’s how it’s al
ways been. We show loyalty to those who show loyalty to us. She took a risk bringing Leila here. She took that risk for me.’

  Jake took another large mouthful before staring down into his half-empty glass.

  Caleb licked the remnants of alcohol from his own lips and stared ahead in the silence for a few moments. ‘I’m sorry you had to find out that way about Seth.’

  Jake kept his gaze lowered. Caleb could see the emotion brewing in his eyes. Emotion he clearly didn’t want his big brother to see right then.

  ‘But I’m not sorry I didn’t tell you,’ Caleb added. ‘I did what I had to in order to protect you. I know you may not see it that way but it’s—’

  ‘I know why you did it.’ He met Caleb’s gaze. ‘And I know how hard it must have been for you to bring Leila here. Why you’ve been having so much trouble getting your head around the fact she might have saved me. But she has. And any time now you’re going to see it.’

  The need to protect Jake was overwhelming. The need to reassure him, particularly in those final few minutes, wrenched at him. But Caleb couldn’t reassure him. He couldn’t agree with him. Because, as confident as Jake was that Leila had done purely what she’d been brought there to do, Caleb couldn’t believe it. Not enough. Not when encompassed with the deep-rooted pain that at any moment he could be back on the cusp of losing the only one he had left to love.

  And if that happened he would drag her up there and she would do what she’d been brought there to do. And she would see the Caleb that drove the reputation. She would see the Caleb even his brother dreaded. Because he couldn’t lose another brother. He wouldn’t lose another brother.

  Caleb glanced back up at the clock, at the seconds scraping by.

  ‘How did you know where to find him? Or was it just a fluke?’

  Caleb took a slow steady swallow of his drink. ‘I was due to meet him. When I got there, he wasn’t around. I waited. And waited. I asked around and found out he’d left with a woman. We both know that wasn’t Seth’s style.’ Caleb glanced across at his brother again to see he had his full attention. Finding the distress in Jake’s eyes too oppressive, he looked down at his glass before taking another mouthful. ‘It took me about an hour to trace his steps but I got there. She’d taken him to a derelict building tucked out of the way so no one would hear his cries. He’d bitten and she’d left him. Alone.’ Over a century later, it still made him sick to say it, the anger always there ready to surface. ‘In the dark and in the cold, on some stained, dirt-ridden floor.’

  Jake stared up at the ceiling then turned his head away so Caleb wouldn’t see the anguish in his eyes that consumed the space between them. ‘You ended it quickly?’

  ‘As soon as I could bring myself to do it.’

  ‘You held him until the last moment?’

  ‘The very last moment. And a long time after that.’ Caleb knocked back a mouthful of drink to curb his tears. ‘But do you know what he told me? Even after that? Even knowing what that first serryn bitch did to me? “Let it go.” He still wanted me to let it go.’ He looked back ahead. ‘I shouldn’t have listened to him the first time. I should have started hunting all those decades before, then there wouldn’t have been any serryns left to slaughter him.’

  Jake looked back at him. ‘He didn’t want you to succumb to it, Caleb, just like you didn’t want me to.’ He hesitated. ‘Just like he wouldn’t want you to hurt Leila now.’

  Caleb held his brother’s probing gaze. ‘I understand how you feel, but it’s not just about what she is – it’s about what she can become. Don’t you see that?’

  ‘You have no right to judge her. No right to predict her future.’

  ‘There are no exceptions, Jake.’

  ‘There’s always an exception.’

  Caleb continued to hold his gaze until the familiar grating of the day-shields lowering diverted his attention back over to the terrace doors. The grey sky gradually disappeared behind the darkened-glass barrier, dawn minutes away from igniting the horizon. He looked back at Jake. ‘We’ll know soon enough, won’t we?’

  ‘Whatever happens,’ Jake said. ‘Don’t let Feinith use you, Caleb. Don’t let her bring that part of you out again. Please. She’ll destroy you, whether it’s by her hand or making you think it’s by your own volition. Don’t let her.’

  ‘I’m not going to.’

  This time when Jake looked at him, he held his gaze. ‘Promise me.’

  ‘I promise you.’

  They both looked up at the clock. The hands continued to scrape in silence. After ten minutes had passed, Jake looked back at Caleb.

  ‘It’s dawn,’ he said. ‘I’m still here, just like I said I would be. Just like Leila did.’

  Caleb stared back into his glass.

  The evidence was undeniable. Against all her better judgements, against her very nature, Leila had saved Jake’s life.

  He should have been celebrating; instead, despite his all-consuming relief, he struggled to swallow as he knocked back the remains of his drink, the bitter aftertaste coursing down his throat.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Leila stood abruptly from the sofa as she heard the scrape of the key in the door. She turned to face it, her back to the dead fire, her hands tense by her sides.

  She hadn’t known what to expect, but it wasn’t for him to be alone, or enter with a mug of hot coffee and something to eat.

  ‘Here,’ he said, chucking her an apple, Leila surprising herself that she caught it. ‘I wasn’t sure what you’d like but you need to eat something. I’ll get you some proper food later.’

  Joining her at the sofa, Caleb placed the coffee on the floor beside her before turning his attention to the fire. Within moments the flames were flickering again, adding much-needed warmth. He sat back in the fireside chair, one leg outstretched casually as he cut sections off his own apple with a knife, taking each slice directly off the blade.

  Leila clenched the apple in her hand, her heart pounding uncomfortably as the seconds grated past.

  ‘Well?’ she asked.

  ‘Jake’s fine.’ He met her gaze. ‘But you already know that.’

  Her relief was fleeting until it was overshadowed by the reality of knowing he no longer needed her as anything but a pawn in whatever game he was playing with Feinith. ‘Not that it makes a difference now, right?’

  He took another slice of apple, but didn’t say anything. She tried not to look at the knife he turned slowly and deftly between his fingers, the metal intermittently catching a glint of firelight.

  ‘Where’s Feinith?’

  ‘She’s gone for now.’

  ‘For now?’

  ‘She’s coming back later.’

  She didn’t need to phrase it as a question. ‘For me.’

  Cutting off another slice of apple, Caleb met her gaze. ‘Why does she want you, Leila?’

  ‘As if you don’t know.’

  ‘I mean why does she want you alive?’

  ‘I didn’t realise she did. Is that what you’ve been discussing all this time? What did you negotiate for? What are you hoping to get out of this?’

  He glanced at her before turning his attention back to his apple. ‘You have a very low opinion of me.’

  ‘And so unfounded, right?’

  He cut off another chunk. ‘We were banned from killing you but they never told us why. New orders were introduced that any serryn found alive was to be taken directly to the Higher Order. So I’ll ask you again: Why?’

  She looked down at her apple to break from the intensity of his gaze. Lifting the fruit to her lips, the first bite was surprisingly comforting, the sharpness refreshing to her dry mouth. She chewed the small piece slowly, the swallow uncomfortable. If it was a trap, she wasn’t going to play ball. ‘They’re your Higher Order. You worked for them.’ She met his gaze in the boldest move she could muster. ‘You tell me.’

  He assessed her gaze in the silence. A second longer she was sure she would break, but he averted h
is gaze back to his apple. ‘If you don’t tell me, I can’t help you.’

  She exhaled curtly. ‘Help me? The only way you can help me is by getting Alisha out of here and away from all this.’

  ‘No can do, fledgling. You heard Feinith. They’ll be watching the place. She leaves here and she’s going nowhere but straight into their hands.’

  ‘Otherwise you’d let me go?’ Despite him not answering, she had to cling on to the prospect that it was what he meant. ‘There’s got to be a way out of this place that they don’t know about. Alisha certainly doesn’t need to be here.’

  He looked up at her, her heart skipping a beat in a way she wished it wouldn’t as his green eyes rested on hers. ‘Yes, she does.’

  Frustration simmering, she frowned. ‘Why? To make sure I do as I’m told still?’

  ‘Ironic as it might seem, the safest place for you both is here with me. And as I’m the one who summoned you here, that makes you my responsibility.’

  ‘I’m no one’s responsibility, least of all yours. Use me as some convenient bargaining toy in your power games with your superiors if you have to, but don’t drag my family into it too.’

  ‘A bargaining toy? Is that what you think you are?’

  ‘Me and Alisha are alive for a reason and it’s obvious what it is.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘Don’t play games with me, Caleb. I saw enough. And from the way Feinith pushed you around, I think it’s obvious she knows exactly what buttons to press.’ She regretted it as soon as she said it – part in desperation, part in anger but mainly, and more alarmingly, in jealousy.

  ‘And I’m the only thing between you and her, so watch your tone.’

  Leila braced herself as his intense glare held hers. ‘I’m the only thing between you and her, you mean. Clearly this is a private arrangement or the rest of the Higher Order would already be here.’

  ‘Careful,’ he said. ‘That sounded like jealousy.’

  ‘Far from it. But I can read between the lines. I saw the way she was with you. I saw the way you looked at her.’