by Kate Martin
I expected that to make him angry, I hadn’t expected him to suddenly have his hand wrapped around my throat. “Age is a factor as well, child.” He made the word an insult.
I leaned into him, forcing his hand to tighten. “Go ahead. I’ll scream and wake up all the humans. I’ll tell them what you are. After all, they think I’m one of them.”
“Insolent–” the word barely got past his teeth. The next thing I knew we were flying through the air, faster than he had ever gone in one of our training sessions. In the following moment I hit the ground, the grass and dirt sinking beneath me. The sunlight was gone, visible only in tiny rays. I coughed, the weight of Cade pressing down on my ribs, his hand still tight about my throat. My vision blurred for a second. When it cleared, I could see wooden beams and walls surrounding us. The woodshed out at the very back of my yard.
“Is this where you kill me?”
“Shut up and listen. Listen, because I am about to tell you something you are not supposed to know.”
The tone of his voice made me stop everything. Even breathing. His anger wasn’t towards me. I had only exacerbated it.
“In your childish outbursts, you haven’t asked one of the most important questions, and you clearly were not listening when the Council Members were still here.” He leaned in closer, putting us almost nose to nose. “Who accused Rhys?”
I tried to remember. I really did. I had nothing. In fact, my last few minutes with Rhys were all blur.
“Tabitha.”
I tried to respond, but Cade’s hand was still cutting off all airflow. He withdrew his hand, but continued half sitting on me. “I thought she was in prison.”
“She is. That doesn’t mean she can’t talk.”
“But she’s a criminal.”
“An accusation is an accusation, no matter who it’s from. Especially when it concerns someone close to the Council and especially when it concerns Rhys.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I have a theory concerning the nature of this false accusation.”
“And that would be what?”
“Tabitha is VFO. Their sole objective at the moment is to upset the world we have built for ourselves as well as the human world. They want to rewrite the future and write it with their idea of a perfect, vampire-run world. Rhys is Julius’s heir. His only heir, apart from you, and we all know you’ve been a target for some time now. You are young and relatively easy to pick off.”
“Thanks.”
“Rhys, however,” he continued, ignoring my indignant jibe, “is far older, far more experienced, far more powerful, and far more closely protected by Julius.”
“Rhys gets to do whatever he wants.” I couldn’t remember a single time Rhys had ever been denied anything by the General. He was often on his own without the others, and had even, apparently, been lost during his grief-filled madness.
“Kassandra, you have been a vampire for a grand total of nearly four months. Do you think you know everything?”
Four months? It felt like four years. “I guess not.”
“Then stop talking and listen. Rhys is a key piece in this game we play. You saw how Julius reacted to his arrest. When word came that they would be arriving to take him away Julius went into a rage. He sits Second Chair. Second in command. He takes this arrest as a serious offence against his authority. However, the law is the law, and we are all subject to it, even Council Members. The VFO knows this, and they know how Julius feels about Rhys. They know how everyone feels about Rhys. I believe they have brought this accusation upon him because they know what a hopeless case it is, and because if they could arrange for Rhys’s execution it would be a terrible blow to Julius. Don’t forget, Julius is the head of the Alliance. Rhys’s death would most likely cause him to lose it completely. He would attack the VFO. We would be in full on war overnight. It’s exactly what they want.”
I was stuck on the word ‘execute.’ “Is that going to happen? Are they going to kill Rhys?” That sick feeling returned, dragging my stomach down to the pit of me, filling it with lead.
“Judgment has yet to be handed down. And the desired punishment has not yet been stated.”
“Who does that?”
“Tyrus will decide Rhys’s fate. It is his right, since it was his mate murdered.”
“And he can ask for execution?”
“He can ask for whatever he sees fit as justice.”
I sank further into the ground, my whole body feeling like jelly. Cade seemed to sense that my anger had faded, that I wouldn’t try anything foolish, and sat back, settling on the ground next to me. I remained on my back, wishing the ground would just swallow me whole. Things would be easier that way. The ceiling of the shed stared back at me, sporadic rays of sunlight taunting me. At least I didn’t have to worry about Rhys being tied up outside waiting for the morning sun to burn him to ashes. Thank god the movies had gotten that wrong.
But would reality be worse?
I didn’t ask. For the moment, I didn’t want to know.
“Why Rhys? Hasn’t he gone through enough?”
“For some people Fate is not written as smoothly as others. Rhys . . . there’s always been something about him that attracts attention. Even Julius’s choice of him came as a surprise.”
“Why? Why is everyone so interested in Rhys?”
Cade went silent. His eyes closed, and he got very still. Had I not known better, I would have thought him an inanimate statue, or painting. The subtle light played up the highlights in his hair and combined with the shadows playing off the angles of his finely muscled body, he looked more like a work of art than a centuries old, war-torn and war-trained vampire.
I sighed, and pushed myself up. Setting my chin on my knees, I tried to reclaim Cade’s attention with a different question. “So what part of this am I not supposed to know about?”
His shoulders heaved, and he opened his grey eyes. They looked slightly glossed with pain. “The part you just asked me.”
I had never seen Cade in pain before. Even after he spent the night slaying failed vampires. There had been wounds, and discomfort, but not pain.
Something in me recognized it.
“I’m really not supposed to know this, am I? You were told specifically to keep it from me.” By his sire. By Aurelia.
He shook his head. “Not specifically. Which is why I’ll be able to tell you. My orders are to limit your knowledge to need to know basics and nothing more. Clearly this stretches the bounds, but I think you have the right to know. After all, it affects you.”
“I swear I won’t tell anyone.” I felt the need to offer him something in return. “I’ll swear on whatever you want me to.” Surely vampires had some code sacred to them. I would swear on my mother’s grave, on my own, whatever it took.
“You have no one to tell. Millie and Madge know nothing of this. If you want Aurelia to think you’re still ignorant, then you will have to keep it to yourself.”
I nodded. Nothing else seemed sufficient. I’d been painted into a corner.
Cade stood and shut the door to the shed, blocking out the majority of the morning light. He stayed there a moment, just as he had when he had closed the door when they took Rhys, then faced me. “From the moment Rhys was turned the Council has been fascinated by him. He is Julius’s only initiate. Fifteen hundred years with no heir. None of the other Seconds waited so long. They created Thirds, sent the Thirds out to make Fourths, and killed the Thirds. Rhys told me he explained the generations to you, showed you the book. Very few names remain at the third level. Power is coveted in our world. The Council Members are reluctant to take chances and leave their initiates alive, fearing usurpation. Those who have left their Thirds alive, well, those Thirds now sit in Council seats.
“No one knows why Julius chose Rhys. He won’t tell anyone. Not even Aurelia. She had begged him for centuries to begin making a line, to create an heir and underlings. He refused. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, he chooses Rhys
. We were in England and Ireland on business, and he catches a glimpse of this young human. It was raining, as if often is in Ireland, and as we toured the country side we saw this farm boy. Nothing special. We were far from any large cities, and his family farm was rather small. Yet Julius stopped, forcing us to stop with him. Aurelia complained of the rain, of being wet. We had been out riding when the rain began. Julius said nothing. Just watched.
“Rhys was repairing a stone wall that had been washed out. He lugged each stone back to its rightful place, securing each. He knelt in the mud as though it were nothing. I all but begged Julius to move on, tired of listening to Aurelia’s complaints. I don’t think she even saw Rhys. Then, without any explanation at all, Julius reined his horse around and said ‘bring him to me.’ That was it. We rode back to the manor of the friend we were staying with, and the next day I abducted Rhys from his home. I think you know the rest.” He paused, as though lost in the memory. But he collected his thoughts quickly, and continued. “Rhys was terrible to Julius, for decades. Worse than you. And even when we thought we might have to simply kill Rhys before he exposed us, or worse, Julius would just tell us to give him time.
“In the end, Julius was right. As he always is. Rhys is the perfect Third. The perfect initiate. He would never dream of taking Julius’s place. Not by force. But Julius’s mysterious faith in him caught the attention of those who had known him for so long. The VFO knows Rhys is Julius’s weakness. Even attacking Aurelia would not illicit the same response.”
“That and Aurelia could probably take them all out without getting a hair out of place,” I offered.
“Very true. But three hundred years ago, things changed. Rhys accompanied Julius to a meeting where Sonya revealed a pet she had kept in secret for some time. A mind reader. He had been a slave, and strongly psychic as a human. She had made him vampire. With a touch he can peel away the layers of someone’s mind, see everything. Even without touching, he hears every active thought in the room. When Rhys entered, the Reader collapsed in pain, shrieking something about the volume of Rhys’s thoughts, and simply the amount of energy he possessed. After that, speculation rose as to whether or not Julius had sensed this, if that was why he had chosen Rhys. Julius dismissed such claims, took Rhys out of the room, and never again permitted him to attend a Council Meeting.”
Until this past summer, when they had gone there to get approval for the execution of Malachi. I remembered what the General had said. You know how the Council feels about you. “So then—I still don’t quite understand.”
“The VFO may have cooked up the accusation, but the Council will not let it slide. They could. They have before. But even the Council would do anything to get their hands on Rhys. If he is fully incarcerated, they can do with him whatever they want. And they will subject him to everything they can think of to discover just why Julius chose him, why the Reader can’t be in the same room as him, and why, once, he was able to walk into a garden full of Hunters and go undetected.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Hunters can sense us. We don’t know how, but we know they can. Line us up with humans in a room and they’ll pick us out down to the last. Something sets us apart.”
“If Rhys got so close without anyone knowing, how does the Council know?” Rhys was not the type to brag.
Cade lifted his right hand, tracing something across his palm with a finger. Probably a scar. “There was an incident. I interrogated a captured Hunter who had been in the garden that day. Apparently one of the Hunters had figured out what Rhys was, and told her husband.”
My nerves came to life. “He didn’t say who?”
“He died before I could procure that bit of information. But it was enough for the Council. They had watched, heard the entire thing. They renewed their interest in Rhys. We moved to the New World.”
“So what you’re saying is that we’re fighting more than just the VFO. The Council wants Rhys; they won’t help us.”
“They aren’t our enemies, but if we lose, they win.”
I slammed my fist into the soft ground. Delighting, bitterly, in the way the grass and dirt flew into the air. “What about Sonya and Demitri? They came today out of respect for Julius. Or that’s what they said. Are they so interested in Rhys?”
“Sonya and Demitri are most likely our biggest allies. There are some who couldn’t care either way. Others, like Aldric, Nadia, Tyrus, Osgar and even Bartolome will use this time as an excuse to investigate their own curiosity.”
The names were all vaguely familiar, remembered as careful calligraphy on ancient paper. “What can I do to help?”
“Very little. You were not alive at the time, so you have no memories. But if you could manage to learn to sense the past in others, you may be able to assist us in finding someone who does.”
“Ugh. Now you sound like Aurelia.”
“Aurelia never had such incentive to offer you.”
I stood. My legs shook while I found my balance. I didn’t know if it was from the stress, hunger, or Cade’s physical attack, but I was willing to blame it on any of the three. “I should thank you, for standing up for Rhys like you did.”
“He is my brother. He would do the same for me.” His hand wandered to the exposed skin of his right forearm. The burn marks were red and angry.
“Are you all right? The burns, I mean.”
“They are not the worst I have endured.”
I couldn’t imagine. My own burn had been worse than some of the death memories I possessed from my turning. The fresh marks on Cade’s arm stood out, but among them I could make out a number of other scars. Some were dark, like burnt blood, but others were thin and white, more like the bite marks Malachi had left on my neck. I didn’t know what could have left those.
I realized this was the first time I had ever seen so much of Cade’s flesh. He normally kept himself fully covered. What other scars did he bare?
How many would Rhys receive?
“We’re finished here.” Cade opened the door and stepped out into the light.
I followed. “I want to be kept in the loop.”
“Then do what you can to perfect your skills, and listen closely to everything you hear.”
Chapter Eleven: Predator and Prey
“You are not trying hard enough.”
“What would you like me to do to try harder then?” I was already literally sweating from the effort. What more did Aurelia want from me? It wasn’t like I didn’t understand the importance of this little exercise. “I’ve told you, I don’t feel anything. I can’t. Maybe you’re wrong.”
Wow. Wrong choice of words on my part.
Aurelia stood over me, appearing larger than she actually was, with a tangible aura that pressed against whatever psychic power I possessed but couldn’t use. “I am not wrong.”
I sagged, already brought to the floor by our hours of fruitless practice. Warren sat in a chair close by, chin in hand and looking rightly bored. “Fine, you’re not wrong. I believe you. But I’m with Warren every day, and I never sense anything from him. If I was going to pick up on his past lives, don’t you think I would have done it already?”
“This ability is still blocked from you. We must discover why.”
“Or, just a thought, we could focus on other things. Like my own past lives, and my creepy sense of doom that you seem to like so much. Or, and here’s a really out-there thought, you could let me go out and help everyone else try to find information that will help Rhys.”
It had been two days since Rhys had been taken away. Two days since everything had stopped making sense. I had tried to be useful, to do as Cade said and learn, but nothing I did brought about any change in my abilities. I’d remembered nothing new of my own lives, nor could I procure information from others. The General had returned the day before—silent and sullen. He’d locked himself in the study, and had been making phone calls ever since. It didn’t satisfy me. I wanted Rhys back. Now.
The ancien
t Greek goddess remained unmoved by my burst of frustration. “You are so resistant to all this, Kassandra. Why?”
“Just not my idea of fun, I guess.” I dragged myself from the floor. Better to face her standing than prostrate at her feet.
Aurelia studied me for a long moment. I could tell, because she looked at me like I were a piece of fruit that might be ripe for picking. When she turned, her long blue skirt swirled about her legs, making it look like she walked on water.
Compared to what I could do, she could.
“We must remedy all this, Kassandra. You cannot be wasted potential.”
“It’s not from lack of trying, I assure you. But, I can’t even sense Rhys’s past lives. I recognize him, like he does me, but that’s it. Warren’s always around, and I get nothing. Same with Millie, and Cade. Nothing.”
“I have a theory.”
Of course. “At this point I’m willing to hear anything.” Even if just to get her to leave me alone.
“You cannot yet sense past lives, despite having the ability, because you are preoccupied with learning to control your other ability, as well as remembering your own lives.”
“Like, I have a learning capacity?”
“Perhaps.”
“So, you think once I have control over the other things, this whole sensing lives business will surface?”
“It is the only thing I can think of, given the circumstances. And since I have never before met anyone with so many abilities to control, it is feasible.”
Yup. I’m the freak with extra crazy stuff. Go me. “So what’s the plan then?”
She smiled, only when Aurelia smiled it was never motherly, or kind, or anything even remotely close to that. “We get all other obstacles out of the way.” She grabbed my hand and turned my palm upward. She was cold, like she hadn’t fed in a while. The stone she set in my hand was just as chilled.
Deep green, with lighter green swirls giving the uneven surface even more depth, it wasn’t anything I recognized. But it was certainly pretty.