Immortals of Indriell- The Collection

by Melissa A. Craven

  The music was cool and bluesy and the indie band was one of her favorites. The vibrato of the bass guitar seemed richer and the vocals more mellow than she remembered from listening to them on her iPhone. Allie was drawn into the excitement of the crowd as the band played a full set of her favorite songs.

  The slow, sultry beat of the music made her want to get up and dance. This was the first time in ages that she’d actually had fun. She’d needed this night out so badly, and now that she knew how strongly Darius could see, she had a whole new respect for him. If he could look at her and see the worst things about her—and still count her as a friend—then she could trust him with whatever knowledge his gift gave him. There was a weird flirty vibe between them, but at the same time there was an equal desire not to act on it. The result was a feeling of complete trust and a level of intimacy with zero expectations.

  “You’re a million miles away, Allie. What’s up?” Darius asked after the last encore.

  “Sorry, I guess I was just really into the music,” she said breathlessly. Her eyes were bright and she felt energized as they pushed their way through the crowd to the exit.

  The cool evening breeze lifted her hair and she danced a few steps ahead. “The acoustics were fantastic; it was like I couldn’t even hear the crowd.”

  “Oh, that was me. I have this thing with sound too. There isn’t much I can’t hear, but I can also enhance sound or reduce it—make something soundproof. Screech like a siren. That sort of thing.”

  “Like my very own, smart-mouthed, blue-eyed surround sound system?”

  “Come on, killer. We’ve got some time before the last ferry; let’s go dancing.”

  “You sure you can handle it?”

  “Aidan is not the only good dancer in this family.”

  “Bring it on, old man.”

  ~~~

  Rage consumed her … unlike anything Allie had ever felt before.

  The world was bathed in blood. Red, with smoldering fires and churning black smoke billowing in the distance, but Allie could only see the flames dancing before her eyes. She could only feel fury as her blood boiled in her veins.

  An anguished shriek echoed in the darkness. She wasn’t sure if the sound came from an injured animal or if it came from her.

  “Allie!” Darius grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto the sidewalk. “I generally prefer it when my friends stay in one piece.”

  “What?” Allie gave him a blank look.

  “You just walked out into traffic, sweetheart. What’s going on?” They stepped into the shadows of the parking garage near his building. “Your eyes are practically smoldering. What has you so angry?”

  “Nothing. It was nothing. Just a vision.”

  “What did you see?”

  “Fire. Smoke.” She shrugged. “Nothing that makes any sense.”

  “You’re working with Liam and Emma on your dreams and visions, right?”

  “Every day. But the things I see, it’s just junk. It doesn’t mean anything.”

  “That anger you feel. That means something, killer. You need to deal with it before it eats you alive.”

  ~~~

  CHAPTER

  FIFTEEN

  “Are you serious? You want to risk Gregg’s wrath—not to mention Naeemah’s—and our eternal freedom to sneak off to some kind of Immortal nightclub?” Allie flopped onto the sofa beside Aidan, casting a wary glance at the others. They were gathered in his office after training. It was one of those rare nights when they were all up late together.

  “When you put it like that it sounds stupid,” Aidan said. “It is stupid.” Especially for us, he added, “but we have to go.”

  “When you have a big brother who can track you like a tagged seal, sneaking out loses its appeal.”

  “We need to do this, Allie,” Sasha said, surprising her.

  “You’re on board with this?” She didn’t buy it. Sasha wasn’t interested in much of anything anymore. Allie wanted to agree, just because it was so good to see her friend interested in something—anything.

  “What aren’t you guys telling me?”

  “It’s not exactly … safe,” Graham said as he straddled the sofa arm beside her. “But there is a small chance we could find a new lead on Quinn at this place.”

  “You should have led with that. Let’s do it.” She was on board with anything that might help him, even if it was a long shot. “What do we need to know about this place? Why is it dangerous?”

  “The Senate doesn’t approve,” Aidan said. “So the club owners keep the location constantly moving, like a rave, but it’s more than just a party. But the Senate can never seem to catch them before they move on. And for the first time ever, it will be right here in Cleveland. Dad knows about it, but the adults can’t get in.”

  “And why do we think we could get a lead on Quinn there?”

  Graham whipped out a black notebook from his back pocket. She recognized it as the journal he kept for all his techie ideas and sketches. As he flipped through the pages covered in notes about his brother’s situation, Allie realized how much this had affected him. Graham was lost without his big brother, but he wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing about it.

  “So we know he’s with a faction of the Coalition based in Atlanta,” he continued. “But I overheard Dad saying they are pretty sure the same people also run the club. I’ve done some research on them but it’s been one dead end after another. They hide everything behind some fake company called Soma so they appear to be completely above board, but they’re shady as shit. They only hire the best young Immortals they can find and then it’s like they brainwash them, pulling them away from their families until they have nothing left but Soma. We need to get into this club and we need to dig until we find something. We have to do it. The adults would never get past the front door.”

  “And why is that? Why couldn’t Imogen and Lucien go?”

  “No one Proven can get in. It’s only open to the youngest generations,” Aidan said.

  “Then we have to go,” Allie said. “Just to see what we happen to see, right? But what about Chloe?”

  “Chloe will be fine.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “My gift sucks big, fat—”

  “Chloe!” Aidan laughed at the look of disgust on her face.

  “Well, it sucks.” She scowled. “But it only sucks around mortals. It’s not so bad with everyone else.”

  Chloe’s defining gift had manifested quickly after her Awakening. She could see the path of least resistance—meaning she could see the choices those around her struggled to make, and she could sometimes tell which choice would result in the best outcome, but she'd suffered some minor setbacks recently.

  “It’s still not any better?” Allie asked, feeling bad about how out of touch she was with what her friends were going through.

  “Well, imagine if you were telepathic with everyone.” Chloe shrugged. “I can’t hear distinct voices or anything, but everywhere I turn, I’m faced with someone struggling with a decision. I can hear the whispers of their indecision—it’s like really loud white noise. I can’t turn it off or ignore it. So the quick fix has been using my headphones to block the constant noise with music. That helps give me a reprieve between classes so I can get through a few hours of school. But I don’t need the headphones when I’m with you guys. I promise, I will not be a liability. We all need this opportunity to contribute. Quinn is my nephew and I hate sitting around doing nothing when he’s out there suffering somewhere. We’re doing this and I am going to be there. Are we all clear on that?” She gave them all a glare.

  “She’s right. Auntie Chloe can handle herself just fine.” Graham gave her a wink.

  “So what are we going to do when we get caught?” Allie asked. “You know it’s going to happen. Gregg and Naeemah are the freaking governor and you know as well as I do, they’re going to expect us to do exactly what we’re talking about. So if we’re doing this, we have to make it worth the trouble. We need a pla
n.”

  “We have to be very careful not to draw too much attention to ourselves,” Aidan said. “Amrita is a huge draw for our generation so we need to blend in with the crowd as best we can.”

  “Amrita? What is that, something clever and ancient?” Allie tried to place the language.

  “It means Immortality in Sanskrit,” Chloe said, ever the walking encyclopedia.

  “What’s the draw? It can’t be just a party. What makes it worth the risk? I mean, even for people who want to go for fun … it still has to be dangerous for a bunch of Immortal kids to come together like that.”

  “It’s nothing, really. It’s just an excuse to have a good time.” Aidan gave her a funny look and she knew he was lying. Or at least not telling her the whole truth.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” She shot him a glare. You’re blocking me. You never block me.

  “It’s not a party, Allie.” Graham said. “Well, it’s not just a party.”

  “What did I say?” Aidan punched Graham’s shoulder.

  “Whatever, your plan to spring it on her in the car on the way there was a terrible idea. We’re trying to fool a clairvoyant, dude. It’s clearly not working.”

  “What am I missing?” Allie frowned. “Why does this club have you all freaked out?” She directed her questions at Sasha. She understood why Sasha was so eager to go, but she had a really bad feeling about this place.

  “It’s totally stupid of us to even consider it,” Sasha said. “It’s a dangerous place with sketchy connections. There will be tons of kids there, just looking to have fun, but it’s the kind of place where anonymity is crucial and information can be discovered if you pay attention.”

  “I’m fine with all of that,” Allie said. “I’m in, but let’s get back to the ‘springing it on Allie’ part.”

  “I knew you would be down with anything to help Quinn,” Graham said. “But—”

  “Wait for it,” Aidan said.

  “It’s not just a party … it’s a freakin’ fight, isn’t it?” Allie said. “A stupid, let’s-try-to-kill-each-other-for-entertainment-fight?”

  “There it is,” Aidan said dryly. “Yes, Lex, Amrita isn’t just a dance club. There will be games too, which is why I wanted to wait to tell you because I knew you would handle it better if you didn’t have time to overthink it.”

  “Games? Like on the island?”

  “Not really,” Graham said. “At Amrita, it’s more about fun—of the dangerous, stupid sort—and less about learning. Think paintball or laser tag, but our version is a little more—”

  “Violent? Scary? Inappropriate?” Allie supplied.

  “Exactly.”

  “Gregg’s going to kill us. And then he’s going to enjoy watching us slowly heal as he lectures us, knowing we can’t escape.”

  “Probably,” Sasha said. “But these people have Quinn. I don’t care what happens to me.”

  “You're right.” Allie nodded. “Tell me about the fights.”

  “Right. The fights will start at sundown and last through the night. They’re super-competitive, arena-style fights,” Graham began. “There will be three rounds and everyone there has to compete at least once. Anything goes—hand-to-hand combat, weapons, and gifts are all allowed. Then the final competition will be a melee-style fight among the best competitors, which none of us need to aspire to. The last one standing is declared the winner. And then there’s a big party after.”

  “All right.” Allie gave a determined nod. She didn’t mind the fighting part so much anymore. She’d finally learned to enjoy the sport of it, but she still had issues with the hurting-people-on-purpose part.

  We have to try, Lex.

  I know. And I’m all in. I just don’t have the warm fuzzies about this place.

  “We just need to figure out how to pull this off without getting caught until after. When is this thing?” Allie asked.

  “We don’t know the dates yet, but it will be soon.”

  “And about the not-getting-caught part?” Allie asked. “They’ll be expecting us to go.”

  “I don’t think they even realize we know about it,” Graham said.

  “How do we know about it?”

  “Amrita has ways of getting the word out to the Unproven crowd. As long as we can get in before the parents figure out what we’re up to, then we’re good. Once we’re in, they can’t crash the party. Once we’re in, we’re there for the duration. You don’t get to leave Amrita early.”

  “So we’ll deal with the consequences after, but by then, hopefully we’ll have some news that can help Quinn.”

  “Exactly,” Sasha said.

  “All right. I guess we’re doing this, then,” Allie said nervously.

  “Not a word of this to Darius.” Aidan shot Allie a glare.

  “Not a word about what to whom?”

  They all jumped at the sound of Darius’s voice echoing down the hall. Allie turned to see him at the door a moment later.

  “Sorry, there isn’t much I can’t hear, guys. Now what’s this ridiculous idea about sneaking off to Amrita?” He waggled his eyebrows devilishly as he flopped onto the sofa beside Allie.

  “How do you know about it?” she asked.

  “You forget, I’m Unproven too, killer. I get the emails.”

  “Darius,” Aidan said. “Just forget whatever you heard.”

  “You taking a page out of my book, little bro? Naomi and I took Erin and Dean there when it first came to the U.S.—but think again. Gregg will flip his biscuits if he finds out you guys even know about Amrita.”

  “Come on, Darius!” Chloe begged. “You know we’re the only ones who can get in without causing suspicion.”

  “You guys might feel confident risking the wrath of Gregg and Naeemah, but that situation looks a lot different this side of eighteen. Dad will just kill me if he finds out I let you go, but mom will give me the ‘I’m-so-disappointed-in-you-Darius’ look. She’s too good at making her momma’s boys feel like total a-holes when we’ve screwed up. Sorry, guys. It’s not happening.”

  “Dare?” Allie said. “It’s not just about Amrita. Please, just look the other way.”

  “Oh no, put those green eyes away. I can’t let you do this. I know you think you’re going to get a lead on Quinn. But that’s why I’m going. Alone.”

  “Well … what if you come with us? You know, like for protection. A chaperone.”

  “Lex, be serious,” Aidan said. “He’s not coming.”

  “I am going,” Darius said. “Alone. And if I see you guys there, I’m bringing you right back home and then no one will get the chance to do any digging.”

  “I’m totally serious. Darius, six pairs of eyes and ears will be so much better,” Allie said.

  “And with your cop stink, you aren’t going to find out anything, anyway,” Aidan added.

  “Please, Darius?” Sasha said softly. “I need to do this. I need to do something before I lose my mind. Once we’re in, Dad can’t come barreling in after us. We’ll deal with the consequences after, but it’ll be worth it if we can find a new lead on these Soma people.”

  “Oh, blue eyes. Not you too?” Darius sighed.

  “Please, Darius?” Chloe added softly.

  “Fine. I’m a sucker for the begging. I’ll go with you on one very important condition.”

  “Sure,” Allie agreed.

  “You all have to listen to me. That includes you too, little brother.” He glared at Aidan. “We are going there to listen and observe. None of you will be getting in over your heads. If you see anything suspicious, you come to me and I will handle it. Are we clear?”

  “Yes, yes. Thank you!” Sasha readily agreed.

  “Are we clear, Aidan?” Darius asked again. “If I’m going to be the pseudo-adult in this situation, I need to know you will listen to me. I’m not trying to take over, but I’ve been to Amrita before and I know how crazy it can get. You think it’s just all about fun and goofing off, but people take this s
eriously and a lot of shady shit goes on there. You gotta work with me on this, bro.”

  “Fine.”

  “Guys, don’t make me live to regret this.”

  ~~~

  Allie tossed and turned in a fitful sleep. Her nose burned from the acrid smell of smoke, and the heat of the fires had her face flushed hot and her pulse racing. Ever since Liam had started working with her on her dreams, she dreamed often of fire and rage—of a bloody world filled with darkness and fear, and so much anger. But it never coalesced into anything she could understand. The terror continued to plague her with no end in sight. But this dream was different. She could hear screams echoing in the forest, but she couldn’t seem to find the source.

  “Mom!” The terrified shriek filled the night.

  “Chloe?” Allie ran through the hazy forest until she stumbled onto an empty path. Her heart nearly beat out of her chest with the intensity of her fear. She couldn’t see anything that truly frightened her, but she could sense the chaos happening all around her.

  “Chloe, you shouldn’t be here,” Jin cried, his voice anguished. “Go now; we cannot stay with you.” The voices came from a great distance, but Allie could hear their distress. Ming Lao’s wails chilled her to the bone. Something was wrong. Something unnatural.

  Everywhere she turned, raging fire blocked her path and Allie grew angrier and more frightened with every step—not for herself, but for Chloe’s family.

  “Chloe!” Ming Lao screamed.

  Allie could sense their struggle, but she couldn’t see it. She could hear Chloe’s tortured cries and the clash of weapons as Jin and Ming fought to protect themselves and their daughter. From what, Allie couldn’t see.

  “Allie? Please help them,” Chloe sobbed, appearing just ahead of her along the dark path. Her face was streaked with soot and tears, but it was as if Chloe was trapped in some other world where she could see the things Allie couldn’t. Just as quickly as she’d appeared, she vanished.

  Allie wandered along the forest path until she caught the scent of apples and found herself alone in an orchard. She searched through the rows of trees until she found Chloe again, standing at the edge of the forest. Allie took a step closer, but Chloe pointed behind her and she whirled to see the fires bearing down upon them.