Wicked Glory

by Gladden, DelSheree

  “Who?” I ask. David is intimately aware of every aspect of my life.

  Ketchup’s sigh puts me on edge. Taking my cell battery from the cup holder and slipping it back into the phone, he turns it on with a quick touch. He holds it out to me as he says, “Ivy.”

  The argument is hot on my lips when my phone starts ringing. Ketchup and I both stare in shock when Ivy’s name pops up on the screen like an omen. My hands are shaking as I answer the call and press the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

  Chapter Thirty-One: Defeat

  (Zander)

  Ivy’s begging rings in my mind as I speed away from the baseball field. She was terrified after seeing the explosion of power and pleaded with me not to go after David, but I knew waiting any longer would only put Van in danger. It was killing me not hearing from her. Each hour of silence increased my anxiety that something wasn’t right. I tried calling her as soon as I broke away from Ivy, but she hadn’t picked up. It was possible that she was secluded in training, but even David would recognize that Van had her breaking point. Not being able to contact her had me on edge.

  “Annabelle,” I say as soon as she picks up, “something’s wrong.”

  “Ketchup tried to call,” she says in a panic, “but I went out running this morning to keep my mind off you and Ivy. I didn’t get it. I tried to call him back a few minutes ago when I got home, but it went straight to voicemail.”

  “Same thing happened when I tried to call Van.” I shake my head in frustration. “Ketchup tried to call me too, but it was while I was testing my theory against Ivy. He didn’t answer when I tried to call back either.”

  “Did it work?” she asks.

  I take in a slow, deep breath before answering. “Yeah, it did.”

  Her gasp is filled with surprise and fear. “Can you do it again?”

  “I think so, but it takes a lot of pain. Somehow, she carries around a massive amount on her own, but I think I could get there without her if I had to. I’d just have to feed off people’s hunger a lot longer without using it.” I pause as I take a sharp corner. “It’s doable, though.”

  “How long? How much pain?” she asks. “If Van and Ketchup are in trouble, we may not have much time.”

  “I know, but I’ll find a way to make it work. I’ll drag Ivy with me to David if I have to.”

  For a second, Annabelle is quiet. “Would she do that?”

  It’s a relief to know the answer to that question. “Yeah, she will.” I don’t doubt Ivy at this point, but I’m more than a little freaked out about Van and Ketchup right now. “Did Ketchup leave a message when he called?” I ask hopefully.

  When she sighs, I know the answer before she speaks. “No, aside from a garble curse as he hung up. I’m assuming he bailed on the message and tried to call you or someone else.”

  “I don’t know who else he would call aside from us, but either gave up or have gotten into a situation where they can’t use their phones. I think they’ve turned them both off.”

  “But, Ketchup said he made sure David couldn’t track them?” Annabelle says.

  If only it were that easy. “I know Ketchup has skills, but David wasn’t interested in tracking us before. He had a tight enough leash on us that he didn’t need to. Now… if he wants to track us down, I don’t doubt he can undo whatever Ketchup did.”

  Annabelle’s shaky breath carries over the line. “Zander, what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know.” I take a corner a little too sharply and nearly drop the phone. “We have to get to the compound.”

  “How? We were both transported in cars with blackout windows. I know how far of a drive it is, but I don’t know how to get back there on my own,” Annabelle says. There’s panic rising in her voice, and I do what I can to hold it off.

  “I know where it is. Remember how I said Ketchup has skills? He tracked us through his phone when we went up during Christmas.”

  Her chuckle still sounds nervous, but relieved. “Leave it to Ketchup.” She blows out a deep breath. “I’ll meet you at your house.”

  “No,” I say quickly. “You stay there just in case someone comes after me for some reason. I’ll pick you up on my way out of town. I’ve just got to stop by the house and make sure my Grandma is okay. If David…”

  “He won’t hurt her, Zander. She’s too sick to stop him.”

  “I still have to make sure.”

  “I know,” she says, “just hurry, okay? I have a bad feeling about all of this.”

  “So do I.” The second the rush of power I used after letting my hunger feed off Ivy settled, a sense of uneasiness assaulted me. I might have stayed and listened to Ivy a little longer otherwise. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. I love you, Annabelle.”

  “I love you, too. Be careful, Zander.”

  I reassure her that I will and hang up. The rest of the drive speeds by with screeching tires and clenched hands. The closer I get to the house, the more fear closes in on me. I am honestly surprised when I pull into the driveway and see only my grandma’s car and the SUV belonging to the Godling hospice nurse. No black sedans, no sign of David or his lackeys. Still, I get out of my truck slowly.

  Feeling like a ghost in my own home, I step over the threshold to the kind of quiet that leaves the hairs standing up on the back of your neck. I can hear every footstep as I walk through the hallway in search of something that will set me at ease. I nearly jump out of my skin at the sound of a voice to my right.

  “Hello, Zander,” the nurse says. “I was just about to take a bit of soup up to your grandmother in the hopes that she might actually eat it. Did you eat lunch already?”

  I shake my head no. She seems not to notice my close scrutiny of her. She smiles warmly and pats my shoulder. “There’s still some soup left if you’d like some.”

  “Thanks,” I say. I can’t remember her name, but she doesn’t seem put out by the omission. I don’t let her go, though. Pasting on a pleasant smile, I reach for the bowl. “I can take it up. Why don’t you take a break and get something for yourself?”

  It’s difficult to say whether her smile is genuine. She’s a Godling, and that automatically makes me mistrust her, but I also know it’s possible she is simply a kind caregiver. I walk toward the stairs with the soup while keeping one eye behind me. It seems like time passes slowly until I reach the door to my grandma’s bedroom and slip inside.

  My hunger responds instantly. It roars to life, eager for another feast after tasting so much of Ivy. I keep it restrained as much as possible, but it’s not a battle I’m going to win. Knowing I won’t be able to stay long, I hurriedly set the soup down on the nightstand. Touching her is out of the question, so I whisper her name loud enough for her to hear without any possibly eavesdropping nurses being able to listen in.

  “Zander?” she asks a moment later. Her frail voice mirrors the weak movements of her hands as she tries to reach for me.

  Pulling back, I fold my arms to keep them out of her reach. “Have you heard from Van or David?”

  Her withered face crinkles like dried up paper. “No. Is everything all right?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out, okay?”

  “Where…?”

  “I have to go find Van. I don’t want to leave you here alone with a Godling, but…”

  She shakes her head, though the movement is faint. “Go find her. Take Oscar if you have to.”

  “You know?” I ask.

  My grandma tries to smile. “Did you really think that hospital would be able to hold him?”

  I shake my head and stand. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  There are tears in her eyes as she nods.

  I almost walk away, but the fear clawing its way up my spine reminds me of another promise I made… to Oscar. “Grandma, if something happens, and Van and I don’t come back, I need you to remember a name, okay?”

  She’s deservedly confused, but she nods anyway. “What name?”

  “E
mily Michaels. She’s a student at the university.” I hesitate, not knowing how much I should say. She needs to be able to find her, but I can’t divulge anything that could truly put her in danger. Frustration builds on my hunger, making my hands begin to shake. “She’s… important, Grandma. If something happens to us, you have to make sure she’s protected and kept away from David.”

  “Who is she?” my grandma asks, her voice rattling.

  “It doesn’t matter right now. Just know she has to be protected.” I shake my head as my hunger threatens to boil over what I can control. “If nothing else, go to Oscar. Make him see you. Tell him he needs to get her out of here, and he’ll do what needs to be done, all right?”

  She nods, fear saturating her shallow movement. I wish I could offer her more, but all I can do is hurry out of the room to fulfill my promise. I make it to the bottom of the stairs in record time, but skid to a stop as the front door slams open. David glares at me from the doorway, his hunger raging like a vile inferno.

  “Where is she?” he demands.

  “Where is who?” Surely, he doesn’t mean my grandma. Where else would she be?

  David storms down the hall. I try to back away, but he catches me by the shirt when I stumble into the stair rail. Ramming me into the wall, he towers over me, though we are equal in height. I’ve never seen him this pissed, or this hungry, and I’m wary of what he might do.

  “Where is your sister?” he seethes.

  Confusion joins the fear crowding into me. “What? She’s with you. You took her to the compound.”

  Didn’t he? Was Van lying about where she was?

  “Don’t play games with me, Zander!” David yanks me away from the wall, only to slam me back into it. Drywall cracks under the force. “I have reached my limit dealing with you two. Tell me where she is!”

  “I don’t know!” I shout, trying to rip his hands off my shirt.

  It’s the honest truth, but clearly, David doesn’t believe me. He taps into his hunger and throws me across the room. The bookcase shatters as my body collides with it. More than one part of my body folds under the pain, but I suck it up eagerly, pulling it into my core, letting my hunger taste just enough to make it beg for more. I start to sit up, but my forearm buckles. Bones I hadn’t even realized were broken try desperately to knit themselves back together, but David is on top of me before I can manage it. His fist plows into my face seconds before he grabs me and forces me to look at him.

  “Where is Vanessa?” he screams.

  I shake my head, blood from my split lip splattering across his white shirt. “I don’t know!”

  “Forgive me if I don’t believe you,” David spits. “The two of you have done your best to play me from the second we met. You know where she is. She wouldn’t just run off and not contact you.”

  “Van ran away?” I ask. Fear overpowers my confusion, then. I knew she was lying when she said she was fine, but I had no idea how bad last night must have been. Van wouldn’t run from David unless she felt she had no choice. Running is suicide. I don’t even know if Isolde would dare protect her in the face of David’s full wrath.

  Yanking me up from the ground, David clenches his hand around my neck. My hands scrabble at his fingers in a frenzy as I try to escape, but one of them is still fairly useless, and I can’t get away with only one hand. Black creeps into the edges of my vision. Terror that I will die before saving Van stabs into me mercilessly. I try everything I can to get one of my knees between our bodies, so I can shove him away, but David is too strong, his hunger making him impossible to beat.

  As I struggle to suck in another breath, his fingers tighten. He yells something at me, but I can’t hear anything other than my frantic pulse pounding in my ears. Furious, relentless panic seizes me, and I grab for my hunger. I pull it in, yanking and grasping, but I know it will never be enough. I wasted it all with Ivy. Defeat sags my body seconds before David’s final blow crashes into my skull.

  Chapter Thirty-Two: Waterfalling

  (Zander)

  Waking up on cold, cement floors is getting old. Everything hurts as I attempt pushing up from the ground. Purposely letting Annabelle beat me to hell last night was a beautifully painful lead-in to having David attempt ripping me to pieces. I highly suspect that he kept wailing on me well after I blacked out in order to vent his frustration at losing Van.

  Even as much as it aches to wake up from something like that on a slab of icy concrete, I can’t help being proud of my little sister for getting the slip on him. The half of my mouth that doesn’t sting curls up into a ragged smile. My moment of vindictive joy only lasts until I sit up and find James staring at me.

  “Some protégé you turned out to be,” he sneers.

  The savage attacks he threw at me over Christmas when we were pitted against each other by David come roaring back to the forefront of my mind. I push myself back up the rest of the way, wanting to mash the smirk off his face. Instead of giving him the pleasure, I take in the fact that he’s stuck here babysitting me instead of out hunting for Van.

  “I could say the same thing about you.” I grunt in pain as one of my deeper wounds growls at me for moving.

  James revels in my pain, but the tightening of his fists betrays his anger. He attempts to hide it with another smirk and more acidic humor, but no one would be fooled. “Pity, all that time he spent on you and your cowardly sister. You turned out to be a total waste of time, and your sister’s too busy freaking out over killing three worthless Eroi to be of any use.”

  “Three?” I ask before I can stop myself.

  Laughing at my panicked expression, James stands, coming right up next to the bars of the cell I’m sitting in, so I can see the glee in his expression up close. “What, little sis didn’t tell you about how she snuck into the Eroi compound last night, took out three of their leaders in under a minute, and then turned into a robot because she couldn’t handle the guilt or whatever?” He laughs at us both, clearly enjoying the moment. “Your sister’s a total lunatic. What use does David have for her now?”

  “More use than he’ll ever have for you,” I say.

  James snaps his hands around the bars and shakes them viciously. “You really thought you were the Gift, didn’t you, you worthless excuse for a Godling?” His eyes are practically glowing with hatred. “You really thought you could take that away from me!”

  “You’re not the Gift, James.” Even though it feels like dragging myself across a spike strip, I force myself up to standing. “I know it. You know it. David knows it. He wouldn’t have even kept us around if he actually thought you could do anything more than torture innocent victims.”

  Sneering, grinding his teeth like he’s on the verge of going mad, James rocks back and forth in time with his livid breathing. “David knows what I can do. You, you’re just an anomaly. Whatever you did during that fight, it was a fluke. It wasn’t the Gift. You aren’t the Gift. You’re nothing!”

  I fold my arms across my chest slowly. “A fluke, huh? So that would have to mean I hadn’t been able to repeat it, right? Are you absolutely sure I haven’t?”

  “You haven’t,” James snarls. “You’re too weak!”

  Closing one hand over the other, I roll my fist in my hand as if I’m about to call my power right then. Instead of intimidating James, it sends him into a frenzy. The bars start crashing back and forth. I’m almost convinced he’s going to break me out and start a fight right there in the cellblock, until David steps into view, calling him off with a sharp command.

  I can only think of how much like a dog James seems as he obeys his master. The feral look in his eyes only adds to the image. James doesn’t hold my attention, though. Not with David standing in front of me looking so smug. “Shouldn’t you be out looking for Van?” I snarl.

  “Your devious little sister doesn’t require chasing,” David says coolly.

  “Oh yeah? How do you figure that? You think she’ll just show up at your door and beg to be taken back in
by your little club of assassins?” I shake my head at him.

  David only takes a calm step forward in response. His expression is vacuous as he stares through the bars. “That is exactly what I expect her to do.”

  Has he lost his mind? Why on earth would Van risk everything to break out of here only to tuck tail and beg for forgiveness later? “You’re a fool, David. You’ve gotten her all wrong from day one, and this is no different.”

  Pursing his lips as if in deep contemplation, David says, “So you don’t think she’ll risk everything to save her brother?”

  Nothing I can do hides the flinch that runs through me at his words. I’m bait. How did I not see that coming? James distracted me, made me think I had been brought here in some last-ditch effort to force me to use my gift for David. It’s impossible to keep my shoulders from falling as I realize he’s right. Van will come back for me, no matter how much I wish she would just keep running.

  “And just in case you weren’t enough of an incentive, I have your pretty little girlfriend as well,” David says.

  Everything inside of me boils as Annabelle is shoved into view, her mouth gagged and her wrists straining against cuffs no Godling can break out of on their own. I don’t have to ask how they caught her. I told her to stay at her apartment. I told her I would come and get her because it was too dangerous to have her meet me, but I should have known she wouldn’t listen. She must have raced to the house after we talked, intent on helping me defend my grandma if needed and to make sure I didn’t leave her behind. I love her but, in this one instance, I wish she hadn’t been so brave.

  Her eyes are mournful as she stares back at me, but I know it comes more from her worry about me than her own situation. Underneath her worry, though, I know she is terrified. Locked inside a cell makes any comfort I could offer seem ridiculous. It doesn’t stop me from trying.

  “Annabelle, we’re going to be fine, okay?”

  Her head bobs soundless as James cackles at us both. “Fine? Fine?” He yanks Annabelle against him roughly. “You and my stupid little cousin are going to be anything but fine. You most of all, Zander, because I’m going to make you pay for everything you tried to take away from me before I kill you.”