“So where is he?”
“He didn’t say.” She shook her head like she was talking to an imbecile. Just because I didn’t want to lie to her, I didn’t want her turning the waterworks on, either.
“Well, what did he say?”
“He said you were en route to the airport. He told me to take you home.” I knew if I threw in the part about protecting her, that’d just piss her off. Cami didn’t like the idea of anyone “protecting” her. She never had.
“But he didn’t say he’d meet us there?”
“It didn’t come up.”
She shook her head again, “Let me use your phone.”
I handed it over and gave her his number. She didn’t have it on speaker, but I could hear it ringing. I heard his stupid voice mail playing. “Drake, it’s Cami. I’m fine. Where are you? I’m at the airport with Daniel and Beau. Call me back on Daniel’s phone.”
“Cami, he said for us to go back to San Diego.”
“I’m not going anywhere without Drake.”
It was dark outside. If we left now we wouldn’t get into San Diego until the middle of the night. My dad had sent a pilot up to get his plane a couple days ago, so having Beau fly us back wasn’t an option. I wasn’t even sure the aircrew who just flew Cami in would be willing to fly again tonight.
We’d known each other forever, and if I forced her to dig her heels in, she’d get bullheaded and fight me on everything. I took a different approach, “Beau, can you talk to the pilot and see if he can be ready to leave by nine a.m.?”
“Sure.” He zipped up his coat, flung his hood over his head, and walked through the doors toward the plane.
Cami hadn’t given me my phone back, and she was gripping it like it was a lifeline. “He’s okay, right? You saw him?”
“I saw him a couple days ago. He looked okay to me.”
Her voice started getting shaky, “That morning at the hotel, four of them attacked him.”
“He told me.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“There’s nothing to tell. He called me and told me to get you back to San Diego. End of story.”
“Does Zandra have him?”
“Nope. Your grandma, your dad, and all your brothers, except Beau, took off hours ago.”
“I bet Drake’s looking for Cameron.”
“Nope. Cameron was on the plane with everyone else.”
“I know, but maybe Drake doesn’t know that.”
“Possible. He didn’t mention it.”
“So tell me what he said. Exactly what he said.”
“Geeze, Cami, I already did.”
“I’m not leaving without Drake.”
I shook my head, “Well then, you might be here a while.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means. . . it means he isn’t. . . he broke up, okay? He’s a jerk, and he’s probably the only person on the planet who I like less than your dad.” My face was warm, my hands were shaking, and my nerves were shot. I reached over to pull Cami close. I had to do the same thing when her last boyfriend got a bad case of the “stupids.”
She backed away from me, unwilling to accept any comfort I had to offer. Her voice was hallow, “I don’t believe you.” Her back was arched and fury shot through her eyes. She thought I was lying to her. Well, wasn’t that a kick in the pants?
“Okay, don’t believe me. Wait for the phone to ring. Wait all frickin’ night if you want to. He’s not calling you back.”
Her eyes narrowed, her brows furrowed, and she leaned in toward me, accusing me as much with the sound of her voice as with her words, “What’d you do to him?”
I put my hands up like she had a gun, “Whoa, Cami. I didn’t touch him. I’ve told you what he told me. If you want to hang out until the morning for him to prove that he really bailed, fine. But tomorrow morning, you’re getting on that plane.” As soon as the words were out, I knew I’d screwed up royally. I couldn’t help it. She’d been pissed at me before, but she’d never accused me of something like that. What’d she expect?
“You can get on that plane tomorrow. But I’m not going anywhere. Not without him.”
A million things shot through my mind. He doesn’t deserve her. She’s just going to get hurt. Centaurs are idiots. Her family turned their backs on her. None of those thoughts formed into words. As true as they were, I couldn’t hurt her the way everybody else could.
Drake was right about one thing: I loved her. I had my whole life. I wish he would take her phone call. Even if he were a jackass to her, at least she’d know I was telling the truth and hadn’t done anything to him. If she never heard from him, she’d always think in the back of her mind that I was somehow involved or was responsible for sabotaging their relationship.
Chapter 24
(Camille – SD, two days later)
I’d been searching for two days; several times I felt close but hadn’t found Drake. I opened the door at Cameron’s house. I expected the emptiness, the darkness of the room. He wasn’t inside. I could feel it – Drake had been here. Even before I shouted, I knew I wouldn’t get a response, “Drake!” I touched the doorknob, hoping to find some hint of where he might be. I spoke to him, willing him to hear me, “Drake, if you can hear me, I’m coming for you.”
I had been concentrating so hard to find Drake, I was startled when a voice hissed from the hallway, “Well, isn’t that sweet? My granddaughter, looking for her lover. Did you lose him?” She had plastered a sentimental look on her face that was a stark contrast to her acidic words.
I looked her square in the eye, the hatred I felt for her clear, “What are you doing here?”
“Cameron is all settled in at home. I flew back to this miserable place. I needed to see how your search was going.”
“Where is he? What’d you do to him?” She should be down south, with all of the others. Why was she here? Zandra was manipulative and vindictive. I wouldn’t allow her to gain any control over me a second time. I backed myself into a corner waiting for whatever onslaught she was planning.
“Did to him?”
“You’re responsible. Where is he?”
“Am I? And how is that possible, my dear?”
“Drake would never abandon Cameron. If he were here, he never would have just left with the arrow. He would have stayed. He never would have left Cameron alone.”
“Oh, wouldn’t he now? Cameron told you what happened. You don’t believe your twin? Did you ever ask yourself what Drake’s motivation was? Why was he so willing to fly halfway around the world chasing an arrow? It couldn’t be to take out a feeble old woman – you yourself know he had other motivations. His soul yearns for the same power that you already yield. You were his drug, Camille. I’m afraid he’s found something new to tickle his fancy.”
“Drake only wanted the arrow to stop you.”
Her evil little grin morphed into a wide, condescending smile, “Yet, here I am. The arrow was in his possession. It is gone, and Drake is gone, too. If he was so worried about you, where is he now?”
This was her trickery; she was more cunning than I had given her credit for the last time we met. I wouldn’t make the same error this time. “Say what you want, Zandra. Drake risked everything for me. I love him.”
“There is a fine line between hate and love, Camille. The slightest action, with the best of intentions, can make that line blur.” I wondered silently if this was how she viewed me, with a blurred line? Loving the idea of keeping a piece of my mom even after her death, but hating all but the sliver of my mother she saw in me.
He loves me. He wouldn’t leave me. He was trying to protect me. Whatever had happened, I wouldn’t let her words make me believe otherwise. “What do you want?”
“What I’ve always wanted: To honor my family, the Chiron legacy. Your brother, Cameron, was alone. His guardian abandoned him when he turned eighteen.” She looked around the ramshackle house. “He is part of my legacy. I’ve been look
ing for him ever since I felt you leave for Ireland.” I froze. I didn’t know how much she knew about my trip, and I wasn’t about to give her any more information than she already had. Zandra asked sweetly, “You met my brother while you were in Ireland. How is he?”
Reiterating what Zethus, a.k.a. Jeb, had told me, “Your brother’s dead.”
“That is merely wishful thinking on my part, I assure you. Zethus is very much still in the land of the living, although each breath he takes becomes closer to his last. I’ll let you in on a little secret: I do not fear death. When I leave this world it will be with a clean conscience. I may be a tough woman. Some have described me as ruthless and brutal, but I’ve never taken another’s life.”
“Doesn’t killing your own parents constitute taking a life?”
“I didn’t kill my parents. I assure you: they died of natural causes, despite what Zethus’s twisted mind has led you to believe.”
I didn’t believe a word from Zandra. She was manipulative and had just admitted she was brutal. The pain she had inflicted on my mother and on me proved it. This was just her new way of achieving the same result. Rather than letting any doubt seep into my mind, I accused her again, “What did you do to Drake?”
“I did nothing to Drake, you stupid girl. He found the arrow, and he took it. I tried to protect you from him and the future I saw for both of you. You still found a way around me.” A look of disbelief must have shone on my face because she continued, “With twenty-four hour guards, a betrothal to an exceptional Centaur – you still found a way. I don’t know whether to be proud of your cunning or furious with your intellect.”
“You tried to force me to marry a Centaur I didn’t choose.”
Zandra stepped closer to me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “I saw your future, Camille. I saw it the day you and Drake found one another, before you and I had even been introduced. I couldn’t allow it to happen if it was within my power to stop it. Drake is not who you believe him to be, I can assure you. You do not want to find him.”
Fury with her words erupted with no warning. “You are a manipulative, deceitful, evil. . . bitch. Think what you want, Drake saved me from you.”
“Yet, you’ve not married him. Somewhere inside, you know the truth. Had you married him, you would have an unbreakable bond – you could find him anywhere. All you have now is the betrothal bond, which is not enough to locate him. You know he is not the right one for you. You’ve known it since the beginning.”
“I don’t believe that.” I turned to storm away, hoping never again to see this woman.
Her voice caught me as my heavy steps walked to the door. “Cameron will be at my estate. I hope you’ll join us soon. Go ahead and look for your Centaur. When you find him, retrieve my arrow. Zeus’s curse is unforgiving of thieves, and he has stolen Chiron property.”
“If you don’t know where he is, then he and the arrow are both safe. He’s hiding it from you.”
“Safe? That is a matter of perspective. Let me share what I’ve pieced together. I knew Drake Nash’s intentions toward you. I did everything in my power to stop the two of you, but he was able to escape and convince you it was your idea to go. You flew to Ireland. Why? To find an arrow that belongs to our bloodline. You located the arrow that should have been used against your enemy – me; but where did it go? I don’t have it. You don’t have it. Not only does Cameron not have it, he no longer has its protection. What is your priority now, my dear?”
“Once I’ve found Drake, I’ll be there to collect my brother.”
“I wish you the best of luck, Camille. Once you learn the truth about your Drake, you can rest assured no one else will have you. All the Centaurs will soon know of you and your ties to the Lost Herd, so finding a suitor now would prove difficult. I think you have earned the destiny I tried so hard to keep you from. Enjoy it.”
As I stood holding the door, she walked past me. I remembered my time at her estate. She cut me off from everyone. She refused to allow anyone to talk to me. She led me to believe Drake and Bianca were dead, and she tried to force me to marry Gage. She was more manipulative than any person I’d ever known. She was more than capable of lying to me: this was just her latest lie. Of all the powers I possessed, being a lie detector wasn’t one of them, but if I had to choose between Uncle Zethus and my grandmother – I would believe my great-uncle.
Last time she had pretended Drake was dead when he was safe. I wouldn’t be manipulated by her; I wouldn’t allow even a morsel of doubt to seep into my mind. I just needed to find him before she did.
Chapter 25
(Camille – looking for Drake, SD)
I had walked seven miles past Cameron’s house, following Drake. It wasn’t his scent, or a path through the snow; it was as if I were following his energy. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d called him on my cell or called out to him with my voice and through my mind. I was exhausted. He wasn’t dead, and I was sure he was close.
I could feel his energy getting stronger, more pronounced the further I walked. At the end of the overgrown gravel driveway stood a long forgotten farmhouse. Paint chips peeled up toward the sun as if begging for a little more warmth to escape the frigid air. More fresh snow had fallen today, and no footprints had disturbed the snow but mine. It was early December. I’d gotten back from Florida a week ago and had searched for Drake every waking minute since my return.
I had felt this close before, but each time I felt he was around the next corner, I lost him again. Time alone was my enemy. Each night since my search began, Beau and Daniel were waiting for me at the hotel. Each night I could count on one or both of them trying to talk me into returning to San Diego with them.
I didn’t want Beau’s comfort or Daniel’s friendship; I was still blinded by the loss of Drake. Neither had returned to San Diego, but I wouldn’t let either of them help me search for Drake, either. I’d watched Phineas’s men beat Drake to within an inch of his life. I knew Daniel had told me the truth when he said Drake didn’t want to see me again, but I couldn’t let it go. I couldn’t let my last memory of Drake be the terror I felt in that moment in our hotel room. If he had changed his mind and no longer wanted me, I could accept it, but I needed my last memory of him to be one where he was okay.
I could accept if he blamed me for what Phineas’s men had done to him. I wouldn’t deny that if I hadn’t met Drake that day at Bruce’s wedding, he would be way better off for never having met me. I would accept his hatred, or contempt, or whatever he was feeling, so long as I could see him one last time, even if it meant our last conversation would be a good-bye.
No matter how I tried explaining it to Beau or Daniel, neither understood why I had to find Drake. After I told Beau I had run into Zandra at Cameron’s house, he and Lacey insisted on helping me search yesterday. This morning I got up and left the hotel before either woke up, so I could do this on my own.
Both Beau and Daniel believed that if we all went back to San Diego, eventually Drake would get over whatever was going on with him and maybe he’d come looking for us there. Something told me that would never happen, and I needed to find him now or know that I would lose him forever.
In my heart I knew Zandra was full of lies. I didn’t want them to, but her words had made an impression on me. She had done everything in her power to keep us apart, but I thought it unlikely she did it for me.
My search continued. I’d felt his presence several times this last week, but I was never able to find him. It was as if he were just outside my reach. There was one person I could call on, the one person who’d been there for me my whole life. Our bond was so strong, I could even call on her in death. “Mom? Mom, are you there? Mom, I need you.”
Her faint outline materialized in front of me. With the cold temperatures, my breath turned to vapor in front of me. As I exhaled, it went straight through her. Her response was audible, but barely. “Camille, it’s almost time.”
Sadness pulled at my heart, and a t
ear threatened to streak down my cheek, “You have to help me find Drake.”
“I’m sorry, Camille. I’m just a spirit, and it is past my time. It’s time for me to go to the pasture.”
I begged her, “Tell me how to find him. Please. I just need to know he’s okay.” The hurt that I’d felt for days when Daniel told me that Drake had abandoned me threatened to swallow me whole. The vicious words from Zandra and the insane loneliness were almost too much to bear. “Please, Mom. Help me.”
“Your Centaur is alive. If he were not, I would have seen him on this side. I don’t know where he is.”
“Did Zandra do something to him?”
“I don’t know, Camille.”
I saw her image fading. In my heart I knew this would be our last visit. She had grown weak. I wanted to say something profound, something that would let her know how much I knew she gave up for me. I came up empty; I was too broken, too alone, too cold and too exhausted to think straight. Instead I asked a question I already knew the answer to. “Wait. . . will I ever see you again?”
She smiled and the image of her took on a yellow, almost comforting glow. “When your time is over, I will be waiting for you in the pasture. You were the only joy I ever had in my life. Thank you for making my life worth living.”
Choking back the tears, “I wish I’d been a better daughter. I wish I’d known what you sacrificed for us.”
She smiled, and the soft warm glow surrounding her brightened. “There were no sacrifices, only choices. I chose my life, and I lived it without regrets. I’m proud of you, Camille. My only sadness is that I didn’t have more time here, to see the choices you will make.”
“How will I learn anything without you?”
“It’s in your blood, Camille. You don’t need a teacher. Remember your life is a gift and choices you make are yours and nobody else’s.”
Centaur Legacy Page 18