Immortals of Indriell- The Collection

by Melissa A. Craven

  “Pay attention.”

  “I will if you’ll shut up,” Allie hissed.

  “What can we do, Gregg?” Aide sighed in frustration. “It’s been eight months.”

  “We know exactly where he is now, and we know what they intend to do with him. But we can’t get close enough to make a move.” Gregg’s frustration was evident in his tone.

  “Oooh, this is about Quinn,” Allie said. “It’s about time they come up with a plan.”

  “Shhh!” Gift-Allie elbowed her.

  “Why can’t we just set up a Senate raid on Soma?” Hélène asked. “We have all the right connections and I can’t stomach the thought of my little brother with that vile woman for one more second.”

  “Livia?” Allie asked. “Have the found her?”

  “Shhh!”

  “Right, quiet.”

  “The Senate is in Soma’s pocket,” Gregg said. “We’d never get approval for a raid.”

  “So we are at an impasse?” Aide asked. “Is there nothing we can do to get Quinn out of there?”

  “We aren’t asking the right questions.” Gregg frowned into his tumbler of bourbon.

  “Can’t we just offer to buy him back?” Naeemah asked. “I know they probably won’t agree, but it’s worth a shot.”

  “That’s what I said.” Allie thought it was a good idea, but Naeemah was probably right—they’d never go for it. Soma wouldn’t want an eyewitness out of their control and the Senate wouldn’t want someone who could corroborate the existence of the slave market, nor their involvement in it.

  “Soma will not accept a bid from anyone they haven’t vetted first,” Aide said. “What do we know of Livia’s recent activity?” Aide pulled his notes in front of him. “Let’s go over it all again.”

  Allie jumped up to hang over his shoulder to see the dossier on Livia. It wasn’t much. Just a few grainy pictures of her speaking with a young Hispanic girl at a coffee cart on a busy city street corner. And Aide's handwritten notes.

  “She isn’t registered with the Senate,” Imogen said. “No one’s ever heard of her outside of Soma. She heads the company but she is an enigma, rarely showing her face publicly. She has executives who handle everything for her. I just can’t imagine how she’s made it over two centuries as an unknown.”

  “She is in deep with the Coalition,” Lucien added. “She sits high among the Margrave as a trusted servant to the current Marches, but others on the Margrave’s council don’t seem to know of her. She spends much of her time in Atlanta at Soma’s headquarters in Sterling Tower. Her movements suggest she comes and goes as she pleases, but she is impossible to track. We can’t seem to get close no matter what we do.”

  “And until we find her, we have no hope of rescuing Quinn,” Imogen said.

  “We must draw her out.” Gregg drained the last of the bourbon from his glass.

  “How?” Naeemah asked.

  “Give her what she wants—or make her think she can take what she wants by force.”

  “Me. He’s talking about me,” Allie realized.

  “Shhh!”

  “What? It’s a great plan. I’m awesome bait.”

  “If we knew what she wanted, that might work,” Aide said.

  “Aye, but I do know what she wants.”

  “How do you know?” Hélène asked. “We’ve been digging for months and found nothing.”

  “She wants the same thing she wanted last summer. It’s what drew her out the first time. We’ll just make it seem as if we’ve gotten sloppy and give her the opportunity again.”

  “No,” Naeemah snarled.

  “Nae, I wouldn’t even consider it if we had another prospect, but we’re running out of time.”

  “What are we missing?” Lucien frowned at their heated exchange.

  “What she wants more than anything is Allie,” Gregg said.

  “Allie?” Imogen gasped. “But why?”

  “There is more to Allie’s past than we first assumed. But it’s up to her to tell everyone when she is ready,” Gregg said. “Livia risked her cover when she came to inspect Allie and Quinn—and for someone of such high rank, it was more than a cursory interest that brought her out. We just need to give her another opportunity to do the same—while keeping our Allie perfectly safe,” he added before Naeemah could protest. “It has to happen, Nae. It’s the best option we have to reach Quinn—before it’s too late. It is worth the risk now while we have the time to carefully plan and act. To wait any longer, we run the risk of acting desperately.”

  “We will not use her as bait, Greggory McBrien!”

  “I’m afraid we have to, love.”

  “I’m cool with that,” Allie said. “If it helps bring Quinn home.”

  “This isn’t why we’re here, Allie,” her gift said. “Keep watching.”

  “We’ve got company, Gregg.” Aide stood to peek through the blinds into the darkness.

  “What? How? The gate is impossible to breach without a code.” Lucien leapt to his feet.

  “How many?” Naeemah asked, rising to join the others.

  “Mortals. Six of them. Immortals too. They're swarming the lawn and their fires burn for us already,” Aide said.

  “Get to the barn!” Hélène ran to the hidden entrance that provided a means of escape through the man-made tunnels. But she wasn’t fast enough. The front door splintered and a swarm of Coalition filled the room. They had a bullet through Hélène’s chest before she could react, and a slim metal collar clasped around her throat.

  “Count them!” gift-Allie demanded. “We need to know how many we’re facing.”

  “I see a dozen here with eight more out on the lawn.” Allie darted away from the window just as she saw a familiar mark. The ouroboros brand. Just like the one she saw at Amrita! This wasn’t just the Coalition. This was Soma, which had to mean Livia was behind this.

  “Go!” Hélène turned to her husband. “Now! Gen, please get him out of here!”

  Imogen and Gregg pulled Aide away from his wife and retreated farther into the house to escape through the back.

  Allie ran after them, watching as Naeemah and Gregg split up. Panic seized her chest.

  “Stay calm. This isn’t happening,” her gift reminded her. “At least not yet.”

  “This is our chance to see everything and stop it,” Allie said in determination. “Pick out the most important information and discard the rest.”

  “Exactly,” gift-Allie agreed.

  Allie headed for the beach. She knew from all her wandering around that they could escape down the cliffs to the beach and circle around and back up the steep path to the orchard and the barn where they would be better equipped to fight. They would regroup there to fight for Hélène, but they had little choice but to leave her behind for the moment.

  “They need help,” Allie said. “If they had more numbers, they could handle this.”

  “It’s more than that,” her gift said. “There is something we aren’t seeing. Some detail has us blind. Keep watching. We don’t make any decisions until we see everything.”

  “Right.” Allie jogged beside herself and down the steps to the beach below.

  The eerie silence descended and Allie couldn’t even hear the waves crashing along the rocky shore. Green shadows blurred her peripheral vision and she stumbled in the unnatural darkness.

  “This is weird. What aren’t we seeing?”

  “I don’t know, something has us blocked.”

  “What do we do?”

  “Do what we can with what we’ve got and hope like hell it’s enough,” gift-Allie said.

  Allie caught up to Gregg and Aide as they crouched along the path leading back up to the orchard.

  “Where is Naeemah?” Allie searched but couldn’t see her anywhere.

  “They’ll separate the Complements. That’s the first line of defense,” gift-Allie said.

  “Right. You were paying more attention to Daniel’s lessons than I was.”

&nb
sp; “I am you, you nitwit. You were listening.”

  “Aidan’s right. I’m totally mean.”

  “Shhh!”

  As they made their way up to the barn, more Coalition waited for them. Fires blazed out of control in the forests around the house, and black smoke filled the sky, just like it had in all her nightmares before. This time she was back in the thick of it. But this time she had the whole picture … almost.

  Gregg and Aide fought their way through the trees, with Imogen bringing up the rear, but they were completely unprepared for this attack. They weren’t even armed.

  “That’s why we’re here,” gift-Allie said. “This is not going to happen.”

  “If we have anything to do with it, it certainly won’t,” Allie agreed with herself, reaching for a fist bump but got a blank stare in return.

  Shadowed figures swarmed the orchard.

  “How many here?” gift-Allie asked.

  “Fifteen? Thirty? I don’t know. It seems like the same group from the house, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it,” Allie said.

  “It’s their lives were betting on.” Her gift pointed to the fight playing out before them.

  Gregg wielded a knife from his boot, taking out several mortals before three Immortals took him down. He didn’t leave them unscathed, unleashing the brunt of his electromagnetic power into them. The three men fell to the ground, twitching and jerking. But the collar that snapped around Gregg’s neck was done so by mortal hands, not as affected by his magnetic pulse that could separate an Immortal from their power.

  “No!” Allie gasped at the sight of the strongest man she’d ever known, down on his knees in the dirt. Unarmed and helpless with that damned collar around his throat. “This will not happen!”

  “Focus on the important details and discard the rest,” gift-Allie said. “Do not let your emotions cloud what you see. Watch without fear so we can stop this.”

  “Naeemah!” Gregg cried at the sound of gunfire.

  Allie stared as Naeemah fell from the trees, her body riddled with bullets. She’d tried to travel through the trees to reach Hélène, but they were watching for her.

  “They know what their abilities are.” Allie gasped as the realization struck her. “They’re prepared. They know exactly who they’re facing and they know exactly how to use their power against them.”

  “But the question remains, how did they get past the gates?” gift-Allie asked.

  “Lucien’s an architect. He designed this place like a fortress. He would have made it impossible for anyone to break in,” Allie said.

  “And yet, it seems they’ve managed to just walk right in.”

  “We’ve been betrayed,” Allie said. “But who? How?”

  “That’s what we need to find out.”

  Allie took a step back and stumbled to her knees, watching in horror as Gregg, Naeemah, Aide, and Hélène were all collared and forced to their knees beside a raging fire.

  “No,” Allie choked as she caught sight of two bodies lying on the ground behind them. “Gen? No, please no.…” Allie’s tears streaked down her face, mixing with soot and sweat. Her heart broke for Aidan. He adored his sister. But Lucien and Gen lay dead beside the fire. “How can they do this? Imogen was so talented and Lucien was so young. It’s just wrong. We have to stop this!”

  “Focus.” Gift-Allie forced her to turn away from the awful sight of Aidan’s dead sister and her Complement—Complements no longer.

  Green shadows danced in her peripheral vision, and distant voices spoke. Allie reeled from seeing so much happen in such a short time. But she had to focus. She needed to watch objectively if she was going to gather the information she needed to stop this.

  “You will bend knee to the Coalition or this ends here, for all of you.” The Immortal man was dressed all in black and he spoke with authority, but he was not the one in charge here. He was just a mouthpiece.

  “You will have to kill us too,” Gregg spat. He was not afraid to die if he must. He grasped Naeemah’s hands and they turned to face their enemy, resolved to meet their death together.

  Eerie, unnatural silence filled the night. Muted voices sounded just out of reach, and dark shadows whirled around them, like a movie with the sound turned down.

  “What aren’t we seeing?” Allie cried, fearing what would come next. It was bad enough seeing Imogen and Lucien dead, but she couldn’t handle watching an execution.

  “Drain them, then end them.” The Immortal’s voice returned, loud after his long muffled silence. “But keep the other two. Use the male to control the female. She might be useful.”

  “No!” Hélène screamed as they took Aide, binding him with magnetized cords, and dragged him away from the others.

  Hélène succumbed to the same treatment, tears streaming down her face as they dragged her through the dirt. She met Naeemah’s steely gaze one last time. “Be strong, sister,” she whispered.

  When they were gone, Gregg turned to Naeemah and her eyes filled with tears.

  “Nae, love. Do not cry. Be strong. Where we go, we go together.”

  Allie sobbed. “I can’t watch this.” She turned her head, wishing she was anywhere but here.

  “We have to.” Gift-Allie pulled her hair back and made her watch. “This is the only chance we have. Everything we’re seeing now—it’s going to happen no matter what we do. But we can change it. This is not set in stone. It will happen, but it doesn’t have to happen like this. And we have to be prepared to react. Every decision we make now will affect what happens here. It will affect how this plays out, so we need to have all the information.”

  Dark, gloved hands grasped their skulls as Naeemah and Gregg’s shrieks echoed in Allie’s mind. Shaking and trembling they held each other, completely drained of the gifts that made them who they were.

  Blood oozed from Gregg’s nose as he cried out in agony, his voice full of grief and regret. The knife—his own—pierced his heart.

  Naeemah gasped when the same knife ripped through her chest a moment later. Their bond was broken by their mortal wounds, and all that was left of them began to slip away.

  A bloody hand tossed their still-beating hearts into the fire and the night exploded in golden-amber light.

  Naeemah slumped forward, collapsing onto Gregg, their vacant eyes blank and staring.

  “No!” Allie sobbed, her shrieks ripping through her throat like broken glass. The world flashed a brilliant shade of chartreuse and then faded to black and white––the afterimage branded in her mind forever.

  “That can’t be it?” She struggled as she fell into the darkness of the void. She still didn’t know one very important piece of the puzzle—the most important detail of all. She had no idea when this would happen.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Allie!” Aidan shook her. “Wake up, please wake up!”

  “No!” she shrieked, her eyes flying open. She sat up in bed, tears drenching her face. “No, Aidan, no!” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” She held him tightly. “It hasn’t happened yet. We won’t let it happen … not like that.”

  “Breathe, Lex. We have to pull it together. It was a dream, baby. Take a deep breath and tell me everything. Do you know what it means? Can we stop it? How much time do we have?”

  “We can change it.” She nodded. “But I don’t know when it’s going to happen.” She shivered, still caught up in her nightmare. How could she miss such an important detail? “I don’t know how … I don’t know what to do.”

  “We have to find out when this is happening. Think, Allie, please?” His eyes were wide with the horror of witnessing his parents’ gruesome death.

  The thought that it could happen at any moment—that they might have to sit back and helplessly do nothing while so many of their family were brutally murdered—left them both terrified.

  “It doesn’t have to be this bad, but we can’t avoid it completely. I, I just need to think.�
� Allie’s hands trembled as her mind whirled with visions too fast for her to process.

  “Shhhh, Lex. Pull it together. We need you.”

  She couldn’t still her sobs. The horror of Naeemah and Gregg’s murder was still too fresh in her mind.

  “Aidan, what the hell is going on?” Liam growled. “I thought we agreed you would stay out and let her dream.”

  “This is bad, Liam.” The tears in his eyes were enough to convince his uncle of the seriousness of the situation.

  “Liam,” Allie cried, scrambling into his arms. “I can’t stop it. Please … tell me what to do.”

  “Deep breaths, little one. We’ll sort this out.” He turned to Aidan. “What did she see?”

  “Gen. Lucien … and Mom and Dad’s execution. It was awful. She doesn’t know when, but she saw them drained and killed and Aide and Hélène were—are taken.”

  “Let’s go. We’ll call everyone to the common room and we’ll figure this out together.”

  Allie fumbled with her clothes, dressing quickly, and then Liam gathered her in his arms. She was shaking so hard she could barely stand.

  She needed to calm down. This was important and she didn’t know how much time she had. Allie couldn’t afford to fall apart now. This was a puzzle she needed to piece together.

  Pick out the most important information and discard the rest as junk.

  She had all the information she needed. She’d been dreaming about this for weeks and it was time to figure out how it all fit. One thing she knew for certain, she had some difficult decisions to make and it would be important to make the others listen to her when their instincts told them Allie’s gift was too young to trust so blindly.

  Allie needed to look at the big picture and distance herself from her emotions. Like it or not, it was up to her to decide who lived and who died.

  ~~~

  When they arrived in the underground, Allie was feeling better, more confident and focused on the task ahead. They had time. She wasn’t sure how much, but she imagined a few weeks at least. But she had a nagging feeling she was missing something huge. Why would her gift show her so much, but then not reveal when it would happen?