by Rye Brewer
10
Philippa
We walked out of the cathedral into the moonlit night. The air was cool on my skin, which was a good thing. I needed to clear my head. Dozens and dozens of other vampires were walking around here and there, getting ready to course back to their home territory.
I couldn’t help but notice Marcus and his band of vampires hanging back, watching everybody with distrustful eyes. That was their way. They wanted everybody to think they knew more than they did. Anybody who knew them knew they didn’t think at all, the idiots. I doubted they had a full set of brain cells among them.
“Come on,” Scott said again, taking my hand. In his other hand was Sara’s, and I wanted more than anything to pull them apart.
Instead of letting my temper flare up, I leaned over to him and murmured in his ear.
“Do you think you should cool it in public with her?” I asked. “Marcus is watching, you know.”
“Let him watch. He wouldn’t dare do anything to her while I’m here, not to mention most of the other clans, too.”
“I know that, but I think it would be best not to stir things up.”
“Your first decree as leader of the clan?” he asked.
He was only joking, his usual way, but I was in no mood.
I cut him a deadly look that shut his mouth pretty quickly.
He looked away, and seconds later he dropped Sara’s hand. They exchanged a meaningful look, and she nodded.
Well. She had more sense than her sister, anyway.
“Hey, Philippa!” I looked to my left and my heart sank as Sledge walked over to me, his brow creased as he frowned.
“Where’ve you been?” I asked. I hoped to change the subject away from what I knew he was going to say. If I took control before he had the chance, I might be able to steer things away.
No such luck. He might have been strong and loyal, one of Jonah’s most valued and trusted guys, but he was as stubborn as an ox and about twice as quick on the uptake.
He looked behind me, to where Vance was walking—I could feel his eyes on me, as always.
“What’s he doing with you?” Sledge asked, almost growling.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I thought it was over between the two of you.”
“It is,” I said, glaring at him. “And could we please not talk about this right now? I mean, this isn’t the time or the place.” I looked around, reminding him that we were hardly alone.
His loud, booming voice had attracted attention—and not the kind of attention I wanted just then. Like things could get any worse. I did what I could to keep from rolling my eyes.
“It is?” he asked, stepping closer. The thumb he touched to my bottom lip was a total surprise—I didn’t even think fast enough to move out of his way.
“Why’s your lip gloss smudged, then?” he asked.
I slapped his hand away. I didn’t care anymore who saw or heard me. If anything, they would find out then and there that I wasn’t somebody to mess around with. “Don’t you dare touch me like that without asking if I want to be touched,” I warned him. “Besides, my lip gloss wasn’t smudged until you touched it.” Damn that Vance. I could’ve torn his throat out just then.
“Oh, really?” He looked at my throat. “Why’s your pulse racing?” He reached out, touched my neck.
And didn’t he go and put a finger against my neck, feeling my pulse? Even after I told him not to touch me?
“Who do you think you are? A detective? Are you going to join the humans on their police force?” I asked. I looked around again before saying another word. He needed to be set straight. “Listen, Sledge. Just because we had a couple of dates doesn’t make you my husband. You don’t get to interrogate me like this. And don’t ever touch me without permission. I mean that. I have a real problem with it.” I backed away and took Scott’s arm.
After taking a few seconds to compose myself and let my adrenaline settle in, I waved a few of the others from our clan over to me, including Sledge. I hoped he could forget about his personal nonsense long enough to take care of what really mattered.
“We need to get to the building where Gage and his faction have been hiding out. Scott and I have been there before, so we know where it is.”
Scott gave them the address.
I continued, “I can’t have both of them away at once. We can’t. We have to put up a united front right now.”
Moments later, we were coursing back to New York. There were six of us in total, including Sara. I wasn’t sure she would be any help—in fact, she was a liability, since I couldn’t be sure Scott wouldn’t be too focused on her to take care of himself if we got into a fight. I wished more than ever that she wasn’t there.
The entire way back, I couldn’t get my thoughts straightened out. Why did things like the blowup with Sledge have to happen just when everything was falling apart all around me? I didn’t have the time or the bandwidth to think about Vance or Sledge on their own, much less the two of them together.
And wasn’t there anybody I could unload Sara on? I just couldn’t have her around. She would hold Scott back. I was sure of it. Of course, he didn’t want to hear that. Nobody who thought they were in love wanted to hear the truth. How many times had Jonah warned me about Vance? But I’d gotten myself involved with him, hadn’t I? I didn’t want to listen to reason back then any more than Scott would.
We slowed down once we reached the Bronx and the old building which Gage and his band of traitors were using as headquarters. I recognized it from that first night we visited. Would he be there? He had to be. He’d have gathered his little group together for strength after the league meeting, for fear that he’d been brought up somehow. He hadn’t, but that might only have been because Jonah caused a bigger drama than his. He’d lucked out if that was the case.
“Are you sure we should ambush them like this?” Scott asked.
“It’s not like you to back down at the last second,” I whispered. “Is there something I should know?”
“No. And I’m not backing down.” But he sounded awfully defensive.
“What is it? Are you worried about her?” I didn’t bother to try to hide the contempt in my voice. She was taking everything away from me, everything I thought I could count on. She and her sister.
“Maybe I am a little,” he admitted. “I don’t want her getting caught up in this.”
“In case you forgot,” I hissed, “they’re the reason we’re in this mess with Gage to begin with, so maybe you’d better not worry about her too much right now. She’s the one who got us caught up in something—her and her sister.”
“All right. Point taken.”
“Just don’t tell me I need to feel sorry for her, all right? Because I don’t. We’re sacrificing so much thanks to them.”
“I get it. I told you I get it, and I get it. You don’t need to keep rubbing it in like this.”
“I’m not trying to rub it in.” I sighed, already beyond frustrated and we hadn’t faced one solid day of my leadership. “I’m only reminding you that we’re your clan. Not her. And from what I’ve heard of her, she’s tougher than she looks.” I wasn’t just saying that, either. I meant it. I wasn’t sure I could withstand the torture she’d been through and have the strength to run away from whatever she’d run from.
“You’re right. I just sort of feel like she’s my responsibility.”
“We’re your responsibility. Your family.”
“I know. I won’t let her get in the way.”
“Good. Don’t.” I waved the others over to us and we continued to walk to the entrance. I looked around, all senses on high alert.
“Am I the only one who thinks there’s something strange about this?” I muttered as we picked our way over broken concrete. The heels of my boots got caught in the cracks and I cursed myself for choosing fashion over practicality.
“What do you mean?” Sledge asked. I wondered if he was over it yet and
figured he probably wasn’t.
“I mean the last time we were here, somebody called out the windows the second they caught sight of us. They made sure we knew they didn’t want us here.”
“You’re right.” Scott slowed to a stop. “Nobody’s looking out. Nobody’s warning.”
“Nobody’s there,” Sara whispered.
I smelled blood. “No. Somebody’s there.” We must have all smelled it at the same time, since we all cocked our heads in the direction of the upper floors.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” I took off at a run with the others behind me. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. I wouldn’t believe it until I saw it for myself.
I flew up the stairs two at a time, not caring about being quiet anymore because I very much had the feeling everybody who’d been there was dead. Which meant my brother. Would I find him there?
“Philippa! Wait up! You don’t know if they’ve gone?”
Whoever they were.
Scott had a point, of course. I didn’t know that it would be safe to go up there alone, but there was no waiting when I was sure my brother was dead. I was certain we’d been tricked.
I reached the third floor, where the smell of blood was strongest. The rooms had been furnished since we were there, which was a lot of work for them to do in a short time. I wondered where they’d gotten the resources to put it all together and guessed Gage had something to do with that. He must have taken some of the family money to outfit his headquarters and make it more comfortable.
I got to a large room, probably once two rooms, but the wall separating them had long since been torn out. And that was where I found them.
At least two dozen dead vampires. Blood on the walls, the ceiling, pooled on the floor. Splashed on the furniture.
Scott came up behind me and his muffled curses were even more muffled over the sound of my own blood rushing through my ears. I was sure I’d go crazy if I looked at it much longer, but I couldn’t help myself. I had to remember it the next time I crossed paths with Marcus Carver.
“Look for him,” I muttered, unable to do it myself. I couldn’t bear the thought of finding him there, no matter what he’d done to us. I couldn’t tell just from looking at a distance whether Gage was one of the bodies, since they all looked alike when bathed in blood.
Sledge looked along with Pierson and Max, while Scott stood by my side.
“I don’t think he’s here,” Sledge murmured, taking my hand.
I noticed Sara standing off to the side, looking around with wide eyes. Yes, she needed to be afraid. She needed to be scared for her life just then, because I was roughly the blink of an eye away from slaughtering her. It was her clan—former clan, but whatever—who was responsible for what I was looking at. I had no doubt. Nobody could convince me otherwise.
“He’s not here,” Sledge announced. I slumped a little, leaning against Scott. He wasn’t there. My relief only lasted a moment. Fury replaced it.
“I want him dead!” I screamed.
I went to the next room, a random meeting room, and tore it apart. I threw a television through a window, swept a row of books from a shelf before tearing the shelf from the wall, shredded sofa cushions until the room was full of stuffing. It wasn’t enough. I kicked a hole in the wall, then another.
“I want him! I want him dead! Gone! Finished!” My fangs were bared. I wanted blood.
“Philippa…”
I spun around to find Scott standing in the doorway.
“Don’t tell me how to act right now,” I warned him, my chest heaving up and down as I gasped for air. “I want Carver blood for this, and I want it now. They’ll pay for this. And they’ll die one by one until we find our brother.”
And I didn’t care if his little girlfriend approved or not.
11
Jonah
I couldn’t stop worrying about her. Was that how I was destined to spend the rest of my existence? Worried over Anissa?
She was capable, but she was always getting herself into trouble. I had never known so much trouble all at once in my life.
And I had made the choice to go with her. I had walked away from my clan. I wouldn’t choose differently if I had it to do over again, of course—I couldn’t imagine existence without her. I just wished she would get a little better at staying out of trouble, was all.
I heard a noise at the door and sat up in bed, where I’d been trying to rest. The door opened, though it didn’t burst open the way it had when Allonic came in.
Steward didn’t enter the room, barely stuck his head in. “We have to go. Now. It’s too dangerous for you here.”
“What?” I jumped to my feet, ready to flee. “What happened?”
“Too much to explain now,” he replied. “Come. We don’t have a moment to lose.”
“Let me get Anissa.” I went to her room, just next to mine, and opened the door… to find her gone.
“No,” I whispered, as the world crashed in on me.
Why couldn’t she just obey the rules for once? Why was she always trying to take things on by herself? Didn’t she ever learn?
“Come. We have to go. We can’t stay here.”
“No!” I said again, stronger this time. “I can’t leave without her! You can’t expect me to!”
“Jonah. It’s too dangerous to stay. Come, now.”
“I can’t.” I rooted myself to the floor. “I won’t.”
He sighed heavily, shoulders slumping. “You leave me no choice.”
I knew what he meant as sure and as suddenly as if he’d struck me with a bolt of lightning.
“Don’t do this,” I warned.
“I have to.”
I felt my toes tingling, the sensation spreading up from my feet to my calves, my knees, my thighs.
“I’m begging you,” I said, but my voice wasn’t as strong then.
I wasn’t ordering or warning or threatening. I was pleading with him.
“Don’t.”
“You’ve made it impossible for me not to,” he said.
I heard sadness in his voice.
I opened my mouth to reply, but no sound came out as he took over my senses. My body went numb, like I’d been plunged into icy water. I had no choice but to follow him as he led me from the room.
It was a spirit, a spirit that had taken over me. Shades could host spirits as well as send them into others, turning us into hosts for those spirits. And we couldn’t do anything to stop them. It wasn’t fair for him to do that. My brain sizzled with fury as I followed him, helpless, to the scroll room where I’d kissed Anissa. What could he need from there? I didn’t need a scroll. I needed Anissa. I needed answers.
I watched as he navigated the stacks and stacks of scrolls without disturbing a single one, even as his robe came within inches of brushing against them and toppling them all over. I followed, watching him closely. He worked his way to one of the room’s back corners, where he moved a stack of ancient scrolls aside and reached into the small hole behind them. I couldn’t see what he did, but whatever it was opened a door in the wall.
Dread filled me as we walked through the secret door and into an even darker, colder set of tunnels separate from the rest of the Sanctuary. This couldn’t be where Anissa was. He was leading me even further away from her, to the point where I doubted I would ever be able to get back. Where was she? Would she be safe there? Was she wondering why I didn’t come for her? I couldn’t fail her, yet there was nothing I could do to fight Steward’s control. The spirit he’d sent into my body compelled me to follow him blindly.
We walked on and on through a series of tunnels, ducking at times to avoid the low ceilings. I felt rocks scraping along my back, tearing into the thick fleece of the jacket Steward had provided me. Even so, I couldn’t flinch. I couldn’t wince in surprise or discomfort. Nothing. I couldn’t even bend down lower to avoid being injured. It was like being in hell, I was sure. I couldn’t imagine anything worse, not even starving.
Steward stopped abruptly in the center of what looked like a junction of sorts, with a handful of tunnels meeting at one point and going off in different directions.
I stared into the darkness and noticed a difference in the light, in the air near the spot where Steward had stopped. A sort of shimmering quality.
My eyes darted to Steward’s face, looking for answers.
A portal? He was sending me through a portal?
Sure enough, my body continued moving, and I couldn’t help but step through the circle of shimmering light and into the room on the other side. I was disoriented, foggy, totally unaware of where he’d sent me.
I heard him follow, and moments later felt the grip of the spirit loosening. It was such sweet relief, I could have wept. I had control over myself again. I looked down at my fingers and flexed them, almost overjoyed at the way they obeyed my command. Before long I was totally my own.
I spun around to face him. “I thought you were my friend!” I roared.
I reminded myself that I was head of the Bourke clan—or, rather, that I’d been born head of the clan. I had strength and power I’d chosen to leave dormant in the face of friendship. Betrayal had my blood boiling and friendship didn’t mean as much then.
“I am your friend.”
“So why would you do that to me? Do you know how that feels? Having to follow you around like some mindless thing under your control? Why? What did I do that you would treat me that way?”
“Believe me, it was safer,” Steward assured me. “It had to be this way.”
“Where are we? Where have you taken me? And where the hell is Anissa?” I looked around the dark, windowless room. “Where did that portal bring me?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“You’d better start talking,” I snarled. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Steward, but I’ll still do what I have to do protect what’s mine.”