“We will get him,” Tyr said.
“I want to go with you,” Rick said. He turned his eyes to Jaden, more comfortable facing her than her partner. His eyes glanced briefly over her blood-stained shoulder and then her white gown. “I know his homes. I know how he thinks. I can be of service.”
“Why?” Jaden questioned. It would be so easy for Rick just to walk away—and safer.
“Because he lied to me, because he has sent men knowingly to their deaths. Because he hurt you—my friend—and because he left us all to die on that beach,” Rick said grimly. “A true soldier never leaves his men behind. And a true friend doesn’t send them to die.”
* * *
Jaden found herself whisked back to the hall to quietly report what she learned to the council. Tyr confirmed her words with as few of his own as possible. It was no more or less than the leaders had learned from the mortal man themselves, but it was more detailed of an accounting. Granting Tyr’s request for leniency, with the plea that Rick’s knowledge and skill might still be useful to the Dark Knights and Jaden, they allowed the mortal to live under the same provisions Tyr had laid out.
“You have done well, dhampir,” Theophania whispered at last, with an approving nod of her head. “I have one more promise to extract from you.”
“Yes?” Jaden asked, curious.
“I would have you swear to divulge all knowledge you have of this time to us. Help us to understand the way of the humans,” Theophania said.
“I don’t know how much I have to divulge. But what I know of human nature will be yours,” Jaden swore.
“Very well,” Theophania said.
“Then she shall be my apprentice?” Tyr asked. He waited in tentative pleasure, not knowing how to feel.
“No,” Amon said. Tyr’s heart stopped. Jaden paled.
“But,” Jaden began, “You said—”
“We said you would apprentice. We hold true to our word,” Ragnhild inserted. His eyes stared blankly, refusing to meet the swirling confusion in Tyr’s. “You’ll apprentice under Osiris.”
“But I made her—” Tyr interrupted.
“Your insolence is noted, Tyr,” Vishnu said harshly. “And though you have explained it, it cannot be overlooked.”
Tyr’s mouth snapped shut. He eyed Jaden warily.
“You are too involved with her fate,” Ragnhild said quietly. “It’s affecting your work and your decisions. From this night, you are forbidden from speaking, including telepathy, until the whole of two hundred years has come to pass. And you are forbidden from being in each other’s sight until the end of a hundred years—unless so ordered by us. That should be enough time to temper what is between you. If it has not, then at that time you may do with it what you will.”
Jaden paled. She looked frantically at Tyr. Her heart thudded low and hard against her breast. She couldn’t move. She wanted to scream, to fight. She would never last a hundred years without seeing him, or two hundred without hearing her name on his lips. It was too much time, too much could happen. But for all her fears and longing, their proclamations didn’t stop.
“Jaden MacNaughton, you will be ordained a Knight. You will drink of this council’s blood and swear your loyalty to the vampire kind. If you ever deceive us, you will be killed in a most horrible fashion with a death that should last five hundred years long.” Theophania’s decree was final. Jaden looked around at the council. There was no reprieve from them, no more mercy to be given. She nodded in understanding.
“Tyr,” Chara said, her tone sweeter than her sister’s. “Go gather the other knights who are on the island and bring them here. She must swear herself onto them and exchange their blood. She has tasted yours. There is no need for you to come back.”
Tyr turned to Jaden, his mouth opening as if he would speak. Her eyes darted to the sharp fangs peeking between his lips before seeking out the whole of his face. He couldn’t answer her puzzlement—not with them looking on in judgment. All that he would say would only make their fate worse. Slowly, he nodded. His mouth closed without utterance. His eyes stayed well upon hers as he bowed his head to her. Then he blinked, looking away before opening his eyes. This was the last time the council would let him see her for a century. Jaden was being ripped from him. Tyr knew what a hundred years could do to a vampire.
Questions loomed in his brain, but he couldn’t lay voice to them. He couldn’t tell her how he felt. Would Jaden still think of him? Would she wait for him? Osiris was as beautiful and powerful as he. Would she succumb to him? He couldn’t bear it. He would never survive without her. He needed her. Remembering the council’s decree, he quietly walked away and never said what he had meant to.
Jaden watched him depart through the red velvet drapes. Her heart shattered. She wanted to scream, to fight. She couldn’t move. The door closed silently behind him. It was an image she would carry with her forever. Was he still angry? Would he wait? Would he still want her then? Did he want her now?
“Come, dhampir,” Theophania ordered, standing as she flew gracefully over the table. The old vampiress landed in the center ring. Holding out her arm to Jaden, she said, “Drink of me and seal your fate.”
Jaden gulped. The elders all landed around her. The door opened. Jaden’s eyes flew hopefully to look for Tyr. Instead, the other Dark Knights entered. She saw Shiva nod at her in acceptance. A small smile of welcome whispered over his immovable features. Unexpectedly, she knew the old knight had played a small part in the council’s decision. She nodded back at him.
One of the knights carried a branding iron. Jaden shivered. The knights crowded into the hollow circle. The one called Aleksander thrust the iron into the torch fire to let it heat. Jaden turned back to Theophania. The vampiress nodded, lifting her arm higher.
“Drink of me,” Theophania commanded.
Jaden took the cool flesh in her hand. She couldn’t think to refuse. It was the only way she’d see Tyr again. If she must wait one hundred years to be with him, then so be it. She would wait. The council only said she couldn’t see or speak. They said nothing about the written word. She would find a way. She just had to.
“You may get sick,” Theophania said, as Jaden lowered her lips. “Vampires were not meant to drink of it.”
Biting into the first bit of flesh, her initiation into the Dark Knights began—the mixing of ancient blood with her own, the feeding ceremony of fast allies. Tyr did not return, nor was his name mentioned. When she had tasted of her new family’s blood and they of hers, the vows of loyalty were spoken and the brand was taken from the flames. Jaden gritted her teeth as she was marked for an eternity, her lips pressed tightly to prevent her agonizing screams. The ceremony lasted throughout the night. And from beginning to end, her mind focused on the one thing that would forever haunt her—her love for Tyr.
Chapter Seventeen
New York City, New York, December
The city stretched out from the height of Mack’s library window. The tall gray buildings stood frozen in the glitter of the falling snow. Lights speckled the landscape, dotting the night like stars. Jaden’s face didn’t move as she stared out over the city. She felt the people below her, trudging through the snowy sidewalks, hailing cabs that splashed in the watery streets. It was a chaos of emotions and it all hammered inside her.
She was learning to control her new powers with the help of Osiris and Shiva. Osiris was a hard teacher, very limited with praise. But his methods were fair. Tyr was not there to help her and she had no choice but to follow Osiris’s commands.
Over the months, Osiris began to accept her presence among them, especially when she didn’t complain about the tasks he set before her. They’d tested her rigorously in those first days—gauging her skills, testing her knowledge, asking questions about her human intelligence. There were many things about the modern age they were curious about but didn’t understand.
Shiva hung around following her ordainment into knighthood to help with her training. He even p
atiently explained the best way to mesmerize and bite a victim so they would sustain no memory or injury. It had been hard at first to consciously bite into living flesh, learning to temper the need.
Osiris and Shiva were, for the most part, amiable companions and talented instructors. She learned a lot under their tutelage. However, there were things they couldn’t teach her. They couldn’t teach her how to forget Tyr, how to stop loving him. And they couldn’t tell her how to reach him.
That brief moment in the council’s hall was the last she saw of him. There were no good-byes, no explanations, and no resolutions. She would have to wait two hundred years before she could try to give them, one hundred years to merely see him.
“I have the weapons specs,” Jaden said quietly. Uncrossing her arms, she held up a stack of folders over her shoulder. She didn’t need to look at Shiva to know he was there. She felt him behind her, felt his movements connected to her blood.
It was strange being back in Mack’s apartment. Everything looked so familiar and distant. So much had changed since her last visit.
“The council will be glad,” Shiva answered. He came up next to her, turning his eyes to the cold outside. Jaden handed him the folders. Then, turning around, she placed a thick book on top of the stack. Shiva glanced at it in mild surprise. “What’s this?”
“It’s a book that describes the Dark Knights. It’s said to be a book of myths, but I thought it would be best to take it back to the council hall. I thought I could leave it for Tyr.” Jaden refused to meet Shiva’s eyes.
“There is no message within?” Shiva asked lightly. “You wouldn’t dare to try their patience by writing? I know the idea must be tempting.”
“No,” Jaden answered. “I know the decree and I know the cost at which I must obey it.”
“One hundred years is not so long,” he said quietly, mindful of the servants in the home. “Soon they will have passed.”
“Two hundred to hear his voice,” she said. What she wouldn’t give to just hear him.
Changing the subject, Shiva said, “Osiris tells me you finished your ordainment.”
“Yes,” Jaden finally looked at him. “Morana, Chernobog and Hades met with me yesterday. We exchanged our blood.”
Jaden thought of the quiet, albeit somewhat hostile, knights. It had been nothing more than a business transaction. They had disappeared right after without any words beyond the required sacred oath.
“Then it is done, little sister,” Shiva said proudly. “You are truly one of us.”
“All but Vladamir,” she said, thinking of the Moroi leader she would probably never know. She had been forbidden from seeking out Jirí, his replacement.
“Jade,” Shiva whispered.
“Will I not be ordained with a name of a goddess?” she broke in, knowing by the knight’s tone he was going to mention Tyr. There was nothing he could say to ease the pain inside her. All she had was her work. She had to cling to her work. If she stopped to think, she would again start counting the days. And then she would be useless—a defeated mass.
“And betray the beauty of your eyes?” Osiris murmured from behind, as if such a thing would be an affront to them all.
Jaden had felt he was there. Turning to him, she managed a small smile of greeting. The pleasure was not in the fading light of her gaze.
“Come,” Osiris said. “We have located your uncle.”
“Are you ready for this?” Shiva asked.
Jaden hardened her resolve. She was more than ready. After the file had been translated for her, she couldn’t wait to get a piece of her uncle’s deviously black heart.
Striding across the library floor, she led the way downstairs. The main hall was dark but they moved through it with soundless ease. Then, stopping in the front hall, she pushed the button on the elevator.
The three of them made quite the invisible group. Jaden had adopted their long black jacket, great for enfolding a victim within. Her clothes were also the matching color of night, tight against her form, the dark contrasting her pale skin. When they walked, it was with a decided purpose to their movements.
It had been amazingly simple to breach her uncle’s stronghold. How foolish Mack had been to think his houses safe. She walked right in the front door, greeted kindly by the doorman. Shiva and Osiris took the same approach as Tyr once used. Jaden didn’t have the skill as of yet, but was assured it would develop in time.
The doors slid open. Jaden stepped inside and pressed her uncle’s code into the key pad. Within moments, the doors opened on the basement level. Jaden felt Mack’s presence immediately. Shiva and Osiris slipped into the shadows at her sides.
Lowering her face, she stepped forward, letting her footfall hit softly on the cement floor. The room was no more than a clean warehouse-like basement. Overhead the hum of fluorescent lights cast a yellowish hue over her uncle, giving a ghoulish cast to his features as he sat under their dim rays.
Mack’s head whipped around at the noise. His hands rested over a laboratory table filled with strange potions and vials. The sleeves of his linen shirt were rolled up his arms. A machine hummed beside him. Seeing Jaden passing beneath the light, he stiffened.
“Jade?” he whispered in awe. Suddenly, a weak smile broke out over his face. As he pushed his arms up and tried to stand, a vial rolled onto the floor, crashing. He immediately settled his arms on the counter, leaned forward, and stared into the shadows, trying to see her.
Jaden didn’t return the sentiment in his tone. She stayed back from the ring of light thrown out over her uncle, studying him. Mack was pale—too pale. His dark hair was disheveled over his head in overlong waves. The shadow of a graying beard lined his jaw. His arms stayed fixed to the countertop, as if he moved, his whole body might fall.
“Rick said you were ali—” Mack began. Her eyes flashed from the darkness, stopping him.
Jaden stepped into the light, letting her uncle take in the paleness of her face, the eerie glowing of her eyes. She knew what Rick had told him. She sent him with the news. Her mortal friend wanted to help out more, but couldn’t protest when she told him to go re-enlist in the military. Mack stiffened before vigorously nodding his head.
“Yes, yes,” Mack whispered. “He did say the vampire made you one of his. I’m glad you’re all right, Jade. Very glad.”
“Murder,” Jaden said quietly. “Rape.”
Mack blinked. “Wh—what?”
“That is what I was charged with by the council,” Jaden said softly. She felt her uncle’s panic. She waited for him to deny it. Seeing him again, part of her wanted him to explain it to her—to justify it in terms she could agree with. He said nothing. “Why would they think that of me, Uncle? Why would they think I captured vampires and mortals only to let them be abused?”
“Jade,” he began. Seeing the warning light in her eyes, he hastened, “You don’t understand. I was protecting us. I-I…you don’t understand. I can explain.”
Jaden stepped around him. Her head tilted. Her eyes held steadily on his face. She didn’t give him time to continue rationalizing, before adding, “And why would they say my mother was a vampire? You said she fell off a horse.”
“No, no, Jade,” Mack began. Jaden arched an eyebrow, skeptical. Mack began to sweat and pulled a moist handkerchief to his forehead. He didn’t raise his hand from the table as he used it for support. The action took an abnormally long time. Leaning forward, he huffed for breath, “I’ve wanted to tell you the truth, Jaden. But I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Then tell me the truth now,” she said under her breath. “For this is the only time I’ll listen to what you have to say to me.”
“I was in the horse-riding accident, not Rhona,” Mack explained. He took a deep breath, wrinkling his forehead in concentration. “That is when he found me.”
“Who?” Jaden queried softly. “Who found you?”
“I was bleeding to death, lying on the forest floor for a whole day. And then a vampire came
and offered me salvation for loyalty. You have to understand. I was just a kid. I was scared of dying. I promised him I’d help him. I didn’t know what he wanted.” Mack’s words trailed off. His breath became shallow. Jaden watched him carefully, wondering if it was fright that made him so sickly.
“What did he want?” Jaden questioned. She felt a prickling sensation go up her spine. They weren’t alone. She felt the other knights behind her.
“I don’t know. He helped me and disappeared. For months I thought it was a dream. Then Madame Fabienne, one of our servants, woke me one night and bid me to Rhona’s bedroom. I found my sister fornicating with an ungodly beast. He was drinking from her neck and she was letting him.” Mack shuddered. Jaden lowered her gaze briefly, her body swaying with longing for Tyr. She understood well what her mother had felt. But she no longer resented the woman for it.
“Fabienne told me the creature was a vampire and gave me a potion that was supposed to kill my sister’s lover next time he came to her. So I made the potion, gave it to Rhona in her drink and waited. The next night the vampire came, but instead of killing him the potion got her pregnant with you.”
Jaden listened to his words. Her heart paced steadily as he admitted the truth. Mack leaned harder on the countertop. Looking around, he saw a stool behind him. Reaching with his foot, he wheeled it to him and sat.
“I thought the potion worked, fool that I was,” Mack continued, growing paler with each word. “But when Rhona told me who the father of her baby was, I knew I had been tricked. By then it was too late. You were born and Rhona was going to take you away with her. I waited for Bhaltair to come for you both, but I could never catch him. I knew he had been there for I would find little flowers from the forest in your crib. Rhona was being locked into her room at night to keep her from the devil’s work. It was a different time. Our parents were ashamed to have a bastard child in the family. They knew nothing of your father and died soon after from the heartache, believing Rhona had been taken advantage of by a rogue. You were kept a secret. A year passed after your birth, and one night the vampire who saved me came to me. He told me that Rhona was no longer my sister. I...”
The Jaded Hunter Page 30