by Kate Martin
“What does that mean? What accusation?” I didn’t care if I sounded disrespectful, or even if I hadn’t been given permission to speak, I would not let Rhys leave without knowing the truth.
I might not let him leave.
The blonde woman was the one to acknowledge me, her blue eyes warmer than I had originally thought. “You must be Rhys’s initiate. Kassandra. Has he kept you so in the dark?” She stepped closer, unwinding her fingers from Demitri’s. She stopped when Cade did not move from her path. “My name is Sonya Zientek. It is a pleasure to meet the one who has caused so much talk. Rhys’s long lost love, finally found and turned. Kept safe now for all eternity. Or so one would hope.”
Something clicked in my brain. Like a puzzle piece I had been missing that everyone else had been hiding from me. Sonya and Demitri. I had seen those names before. In the book of Vampire Lineage, at the top of the page.
Council Members. The Council had come to collect Rhys. To arrest him.
I drowned in my own fear. “Please,” the word came out choked, “I don’t understand. Why do you want to arrest Rhys?”
Sonya smiled, but it looked sad, pitying even. “An accusation has been made. Rhys is suspected of having killed the mate of one of our fellow Council Members in the year 1911.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t. I turned to Rhys, pulled on his arm. “You didn’t kill anyone. Did you?”
He didn’t look at me, just stared at the steps. “I don’t remember.”
Nothing made sense. I looked back at Sonya. “What proof do you have?”
She answered me, plain and simple, no expression on her face. “We have no proof otherwise.”
The tiny bit of control I had hung onto shattered. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. It didn’t make sense, no matter how I twisted it. And it was certainly twisted.
Demitri stepped forward, motioning the three dark vampires outside through the door. “Come down now, Rhys. There’s no need to drag this out.”
The first of the three wrapped a gloved hand around the gold chain at his belt and pulled, lifting it free.
Cade grabbed that wrist. His skin hissed at the proximity of the gold, smoldered where the chain bumped his arm. “That is not necessary. None of this is. I could escort him to Infragilis myself.”
Sonya seemed unmoved. “You are too close, Caden. We want it to be clear that no one receives special treatment.”
Cade still hadn’t released the nameless vampire, the gold chain still scorching his arm. “Special treatment,” he spat the word as though it had a bad taste. “Three Council Members would never attend the arrest of any low-born vampire.”
“We are here out of respect for Julius,” she said. “Nothing more.”
“As am I,” echoed Cordoba.
“Respect?” The General said the word much as Cade had spoken ‘special treatment.’
“We did not have to give you warning, Julius.” Sonya seemed to flare with power and authority. “We could have stormed in here three days ago and had every right to bind up your precious initiate and take him away. But we did not. We wrote you. We told you what had been said. We gave you time to spare your child the chains. It is not our fault you cannot prove he did not do what he is said to have done.”
“My word should be enough.”
“Tell that Tyrus, who has spent these last years mourning and wondering, never having justice for Lydia. If it were Aurelia dead and gone you would not hesitate to act. So save your martyrdom for another occasion.”
Demitri placed a hand on Sonya’s arm, drawing her and her temper back. “The sun will rise, and we must be gone by then. This is bad business, we all admit that. But the law is the law, so release your objection, Caden, and let’s be done.”
It took a moment, but Cade removed his hand from the black-clad vampire’s wrist and stepped back. Burn marks littered his forearm.
Rhys started to move.
I pulled him back to me, refusing to relinquish my grip on his arm. “Rhys.”
It seemed to be enough. He understood all my questions, taking my hand and squeezing it so tightly I would have minded under any other circumstances. “Remember what I said, my life is not in immediate danger. I’ll be fine. The others can explain this to you when it’s all over. Just . . . trust me.”
“Where are they taking you?”
“Cade will explain. I don’t have time, Kassandra.”
“You knew this was going to happen?”
“Julius told me our time had run out yesterday, yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn't want to worry you needlessly, in the event this never came to pass.”
Didn't want me to worry? Of all the ridiculous reasons—I almost said as much, but one look at his eyes silenced me. I wasn’t the only one suffering. I wasn’t the only one whose plans—simple as they may have been—had been shattered and left to bleed to death.
Rhys wiped the first tears away from my cheeks. I hadn’t even realized I was crying. His skin felt cold. When had he last fed? When would he get the chance to feed now? “Please don’t cry,” he said. “I’ll be all right.”
I couldn’t tell if he was trying to convince me, or himself.
He kissed me. Too short. Too quick. When his lips parted from mine it felt like I had been left raw and bleeding. He drew away then, his hand lingering, fingers trailing down my arm and along my outstretched hand until we were fingertip to fingertip . . . then nothing at all.
Rhys walked up to Demitri and Sonya. “I’m ready.”
The man with the chains stepped up.
This time the General stood between the gold and Rhys. “Those will not be necessary.”
Sonya shook with frustration. “No special treatment.”
She stared down the General for a long moment. I was surprised when she won. The General nodded once, then turned and glanced at me. “But not here.”
“Fine,” Sonya conceded. “Outside.”
The nameless vampire reached for Rhys’s arm, but the General intercepted, taking Rhys’s elbow in his large hand instead. “I will accompany him to Infragilis.”
Rhys kept his back to me, I couldn’t see his face, but he hissed, tired and worried, “Julius.”
Exasperation covered Sonya’s beautiful face. “We already told you, no speci—”
“There is no reason why I cannot accompany a prisoner. I am Council, the same as you.” The General’s voice crashed over us all like thunder. Even Sonya stepped back.
Demitri, the peace-maker, nodded. “I have no objection.”
“Nor do I,” said Cordoba, who had been oddly quiet for a man claiming to be there as emotional support for an old friend.
They filed out. The three guards first, followed by Cordoba, who made a silent exchange with Isaac as he passed. Isaac remained as impassive as ever. The General and Rhys went next, with Aurelia at their side. Rhys never turned to look at me. I wasn’t sure I wanted him to, wasn’t sure I would have the strength to let him go if he did. Sonya and Demitri went last, leaving the front door open.
The silence that hung in the hall over those of us who remained was terrible and fragile. The first one to break it would most likely be cut by the pieces. Millie stroked my hair, holding me for comfort, but firmly. She didn’t breathe. Neither did I. It wouldn’t kill me.
Outside, arguing ensued once more. I couldn’t make out the words, didn’t have the focus needed to decipher the low tones and quick sounds. But I heard the hiss of hot metal, and the strangled cry of pain repressed.
Cade slammed the front door shut. It muffled the sounds outside some, but not enough. Hand still on the door, he leaned against it heavily, causing the wood to creak.
I watched him struggle for control, he who always remained cool and collected, and my own control wavered. If Cade could barely contain his anger . . . His hand curled into a fist against the door.
The quiet engines started up again outside. Their steady
hum drowned out the sickening hiss of metal and flesh. My shoulder burned with the memory.
The five of us stood there, saying nothing, pretending we didn’t hear what went on beyond that door. Or at least, that’s what I tried to do. When the cars rumbled away, their soft sound nothing like what they had brought to me, my knees turned to jelly and buckled beneath me. Millie guided me down, sitting on the first step with me, her embrace never faltering.
I struggled to breathe. To inhale and exhale in turn. My chest felt agonizingly empty, as though my heart had stopped beating and left me clawing for life.
I held my breath instead and closed my eyes, forcing myself to focus. I counted to fifty, then sat up. I looked at Cade, still visibly willing himself to remain on this side of the door.
“Explain,” I said.
The broken silence cut as deep as I had thought it would.
Chapter Ten: Whispers
I waited, watching Cade’s fingers flex and press further into the wood of the door. Millie continued to stroke my hair, brushing it out against my shoulder blades. Madge’s gaze sat heavily on me for a long moment, but then she sighed and walked across the room, placing herself at Isaac’s side. He didn’t move; they just stood together, backs against the wall, arms folded over their chests.
Finally, the tension leaked from Cade’s body, and with a heavy push, he slid away from the door and turned to face me.
I realized then I wasn’t really ready to hear the truth.
The truth came regardless.
“Rhys has been arrested for the unlawful killing, the murder, of Lydia Aigner, the mate and companion of Tyrus, who sits Third Chair on the Council. In 1911 she was found with her heart torn out.” He paused. “Among other things.”
“Rhys would never do such a thing.”
Millie squeezed my shoulder in a small hug. “We all know that.”
“Then how can they arrest him, just like that?”
“You heard,” Cade said. “They sent word three days ago that an accusation had been made. They could have come and taken him then, but they did not. They gave us time to find evidence of Rhys’s innocence.”
“And there’s nothing? How can that be?”
No one answered me right away.
Cade moved out of the path of the door. “It was a busy time for us. The VFO was gaining power and influence, and Rhys . . . Rhys was nearly mad with grief. It had been over two decades since Eva’s death. Keeping track of him was a full-time job. And I admit there were times when we did not keep a close enough eye.”
“So what? What does that mean?”
“It means there were times when we lost track of him. He left us for days at a time, and when he returned he never remembered anything, other than not finding Eva. We don’t know what his searches entailed.”
“You think he killed this woman during one of those times?”
“You’re not listening to me. Of course I don’t think that. None of us do. But we can’t prove it, because we were not there. Rhys can’t prove it either. He still doesn’t remember anything of those times.”
I stood. Sitting seemed suddenly too stationary, too inactive. I paced up and down the first three steps, my hands jittery at my sides. “So what do we do? How do we prove he’s innocent?”
Cade had recovered some. He looked straight at me, his expression unwavering. “We find Lydia’s killer.”
Despite his expression, I didn’t like the tone of his voice. “You say that like it’s impossible.”
“Lydia’s murder has been under investigation for over one-hundred years.”
I lost my footing and stumbled, grabbing the railing and centering myself before I could crash into Millie who still sat at the foot of the stairs. I didn’t want to ask, but I had to. “And, nothing’s ever been found?”
Cade shook his head. “No. We have no evidence in any direction. Lydia had been away when it happened. Her body was found in an abandoned warehouse in a small town out west. Tyrus had sent one of his men to find her when she failed to report to a meeting of the Alliance. She had gone on her own, with no companions, and we had no associates in the area at the time who she could have possibly met with or spoken with. Asking the humans if she had been seen was risky, but we did it. As far as we can tell, she kept out of sight.”
“What about hairs? Fingerprints? Anything like that.”
Millie reached one hand to me, an obvious plea for me to sit as she spoke. “Don’t forget the time we’re talking about, Kassandra. Technology has come a long way since then.”
I stared at her. “But they are now. Where’s Lydia’s body? The evidence would still be there.”
Madge answered this time. “We cremate our dead. Any trace signs of the killer are long lost.”
I wracked my brain for anything I might have learned about these things in school, or from my father. “Statutes of limitations. What about those? It happened over a century ago.”
“Human laws, not ours. And even so, there is no statute of limitation on murder,” Cade said.
Hope felt like a balloon, and mine was being assaulted with needles, the air leaking slowly away. “Are you telling me we have no chance?”
Cade remained sullen. “The evidence is somewhere. We will find it.”
“Well, how long do we have? When is the trial?”
I looked at them all in turn when I received no answer. Millie’s eyes were trained on my ankles, and Madge and Isaac stared at an undetermined spot in space. Cade was the only one to keep looking at me.
Their silence was answer enough.
“No trial?” I screamed louder than I had anticipated. They all jumped. Shoving past Millie, I stormed up to Cade and slammed my fist into his chest as though he were the source of the problem. He barely flinched. “How the hell can there be no trial?”
Cade didn’t move away. “You need to stop thinking in human conventions. American conventions. Our world is not the same.”
My entire body convulsed in frustration and anger. “I’m beginning to see that.”
“Rhys will stand before the Council and answer for his supposed crime. At their convenience. The war works in our favor now. They will not have the time to deal with him in the upcoming days.”
“Days?”
The front door opened and Aurelia slipped in, the morning sun glowing all around her. When she closed the door, it snuffed back out, leaving only the darkness that had invaded my house. “Julius will keep them from acting too quickly,” she said. “But our time is limited regardless.”
“What happens to Rhys in the meantime?” I wouldn’t scream and rant at Aurelia. Unlike Cade, I wasn’t completely sure she wouldn’t kill me. I tried to chase away the memory of hearing gold against bare flesh, my shoulder flaring with the pain of the past. In doing so, I simply thought of it more.
“He is being taken to Infragilis, where he will be held until judgment is passed down, and possibly even after.”
“The Unbreakable Prison,” Millie said, answering my question before I could even ask. “It’s our only detention center on this continent. Hidden. Don’t ask where.”
“Unbreakable?” Interesting name. Aurelia walked past us, gliding down the hall and away. Apparently she wouldn’t be offering me any more information. Fine. I could bully the others far more easily.
“There hasn’t been an escape since it was rebuilt over two-hundred years ago,” Cade said.
I suppose that made something unbreakable. “I’m not sure I want to know the answer, but . . . how do you contain a vampire?” Our super-human strength would certainly get us out of any normal human prison.
Everyone’s eyes went to Cade. He stiffened uncomfortably under all our gazes. “The building itself is a maze, making it nearly impossible to navigate if you do not know the way. The cells are lined with gold, to weaken the prisoner and prevent escape. Chains can be used, depending on the offense. Modern technology has also been employed; cameras, motion sensors, alarms.”
M
y hope-balloon deflated a little more. “So I guess breaking him out and living as fugitives is out of the question.”
“Kassandra!” Millie’s hand grabbed mine. She looked at me, blue eyes wide against her pale face. “Don’t ever say that aloud. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
I pulled my hand from hers, angry no one’s desperation seemed to match mine. “What? People break out all the time.”
“From human prisons. Not vampire. And if anyone did break out . . . they are killed on sight when they are found.”
I stepped away from her. “I really hate being a vampire. What if we don’t find evidence of his innocence in time? Are you all just going to let him sit in prison and rot?”
This time, I couldn’t take the silence that followed.
I grabbed the front door, threw it open, and ran out into the street.
I couldn’t stand the sight of them.
The sunrise gave the houses on my street an ethereal glow. I wondered briefly if angels existed since vampires did. But my anger stomped that thought into oblivion. My skin was hot and too tight, suffocating me. I shook and paced, wanting to crawl out of my own flesh. The last time I remembered feeling this way had been the day I had woken up a vampire, craving blood. I remembered seeing Rhys for the first time, dark and handsome. His blue eyes had stood out in the darkness just before he turned me, and I had been struck by the contrast of his black hair to the afternoon light when I had woken up.
I wove my fingers into my hair, wanting to pull. It was all I could do not to. The sunlight hit my bare skin and added to the heat, reminding me with the burning at the back of my throat that I was hungry. Maybe I would lose control completely and go on a rampage killing humans. Then they would have to arrest me for exposure. Maybe Rhys and I could have adjoining cells.
“Kassandra.”
Instantly all those thoughts were gone. I turned on my heel, facing Cade as he came towards me. “What?”
“Get inside.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“You can’t order me around.” I saw my name and his in my mind’s eye, written in elegant calligraphy among the names of all the other vampires. “I outrank you.”