Marked (35 page)

"Not
one that would let me live with myself afterwards. What about if I
stall for a day or two?"

The
shakes were back, but this wasn't stress or malnutrition. It was just
the natural result of abandoning my friend. A tiny part of me had
been trying to convince myself that we couldn't have gotten Lori down
to New Orleans quickly enough, but that excuse was gone now that he'd
offered to stall.

"It
wouldn't make any difference. I wish it would, but there's just no
way. Can you think of anything else that we could do from here that
would give you a chance of getting out of there?"

"Crap.
No, there isn't any other way."

"Are
you sure, Isaac? I…we could really use your help back here.
There aren't very many people I can trust right now."

I
tried to put all of my need into the words, tried to convince Isaac
to save himself since I was unwilling to risk everything to save him.
It seemed like I'd almost reached him—his voice changed
slightly, got a little softer—but that hope lasted only until
he responded again.

"No,
Adri, I just can't do that. I'm sorry, but you'll be okay. You seem
like you're keeping the wheels on, just don't let on to anyone else
the true extent of our problems. I'm not going to tell anyone, but if
word gets out we're all going to find ourselves pretty much screwed."

"Go
teach your grandma to suck eggs, Isaac. You caught me in a weak
moment or I wouldn't have even told you as much as I did."

"Just
make sure that you tell Alec that I'm sorry. Oh, and if Ash doesn't
manage to bring Onyx down, promise me that you guys will find a way
to take him down soon. He needs to be stopped before he can do more
damage down here."

There
were tiny dark spots on my jeans. Somehow I'd started crying without
realizing it. At least I could make sure that Isaac knew that Alec
didn't hate him. It was a terribly small thing to give someone headed
off to die.

"Alec
already knows. He wanted me to tell you that he's already forgiven
anything that needed forgiving. He hopes that you know how sorry he
was that he couldn't have done more to save Jess. He still considers
you one of his closest friends."

"I
feel the same way. Do I have your promise that you'll see to Onyx?"

"Yeah,
even if I have to pull the trigger myself. We're going to bring the
Coun'hij and everyone who's been supporting them down or we'll die
trying."

I
didn't even have to think twice about my response, but that didn't
surprise me as much as it should have. I'd been willing to do a lot
worse in my quest to save Alec; it didn't seem fair to deny Isaac
this one last request. Not when Donovan had the cash and the contacts
to arrange it.

"The
old Adri wouldn't have approved of assassination."

He
was right, but that didn't matter. For a split second my mind was
pulled down a different path, one where Alec's principles hadn't
stopped us from taking full advantage of all of our resources. Onyx
could have been killed years ago, shot from a mile away. Agony could
have been assassinated as he was leaving the estate the first time he
and Oblivion paid us a visit. We could have killed pack leaders all
over the country who supported the Coun'hij and instituted a reign of
terror that would have eclipsed anything the Coun'hij had done so
far.

It
was surprisingly seductive. It wouldn't have saved Alison, Jack and
Sam—it wouldn't have even saved Jess' memories, but it might
have saved Jasmin and Ben. If Agony's visit had been cut short then
maybe Jasmin would have been able to convince Ben not to run off to
New York.

I
wondered how often Alec had sat alone in the darkness considering the
very course I was considering in that moment. It would be so easy to
remove the obstacles in the path he'd chosen, but despite the allure,
I knew—just as he must have—that becoming the Coun'hij
wasn't the answer. It might result in our beating them, but we'd
never be able to replace them with something better if we went down
that path.

It
was odd, but in that instant I felt closer to Alec than I ever had
before. There were very few people who could understand the
temptation that was calling out for me, but he was one of them. Maybe
it was true that there was a silver lining in every storm cloud. As
terrible as having Dream Stealer attack Alec had been, without it I
never would have really understood what it was to have the power to
save someone you loved and yet still not use it because to do so
would be wrong. I understood Alec in ways now that I'd never
understood before.

I
also understood some of what made us different. I would fight Alec's
war for as long as I could, but if I ever truly became convinced that
our war was hopeless then I would choose an option that would have
been anathema to Alec. I would go to ground with as much cash as I
could scrape together and then I would fulfill my promise to Isaac.

I'd
hire it out if I could, but if that didn't work then
I
would learn how to shoot. I would kill Onyx and then I would work my
way through as many of the sympathizer packs as I could before they
finally caught up with me and I went to join Alec in the oblivion
that waited for us when we died.

"Yeah,
well, I swore a promise back in Chicago. Besides, it's been a rough
couple of weeks. There are worse things than putting a bullet in the
head of the kind of people we are fighting. Take care of yourself,
Isaac. I'll pass on your message."

"You
too, Adri."

The
monitor was flashing at me as I hung up. Ninety-eight percent. I'd
fulfilled what I was starting to believe would be Alec's last
request. The only question was what that was going to end up costing us.

Adriana Paige
Interstate 64
Western Kentucky

"You
simply spent too much time on the phone, Mistress Paige. The
communications suite is of no use to us now. The Coun'hij has
localized us. They know where we are to within twenty or thirty
miles."

"I'm
sorry, Donovan, it was Isaac; I was trying to fulfill Alec's last
wish."

It
was like I'd slapped him. "I refuse to accept that."

"I'm
not going to pretend that I've known Alec for as long as you,
Donovan, but this isn't easy for me either. Look at him! Really look
at him and tell me that you think he's going to make it another
week."

It
was cruel. Donovan had raised Alec. He was the last person who should
have been forced to stand by and watch, powerless, as Alec slowly
slipped away from us.

Alec's
breathing had become shallow and fast, but that didn't scare me even
half as much as the fact that he'd stopped fighting the restraints
that we'd put on him so that he wouldn't damage anything if he
started flailing about in his sleep.

"Very
well, Mistress Paige. I admit that Master Alec appears to be on his
last legs. What do you propose? I've been texted alerts that there
are road blocks being set up on all of the major roads within thirty
miles. We are quickly being surrounded and even if we succeed in
breaking out of the perimeter we'll be on the run and likely be
forced to deal with local and possibly even federal law enforcement.
Even our resources have their limits…"

"We'll
use Lori, but we won't try to break through the blockades. She'll be
in the first vehicle and she'll simply tell any police at the
blockade that our group isn't the one they are looking for, that it's
all been a colossal mistake."

"And
if there are Coun'hij enforcers there?"

"Then
she will tell them to kill each other. I want her guard doubled, and
I want them within arm's reach of her the entire time. If she so much
as blinks wrong then we're going to be forced to kill her."

"We
can't continue on like this forever, Mistress Paige. Sooner or later
you're going to have to decide whether or not you can trust her."

I
gave Donovan a sad smile. "She's just too dangerous, Donovan. If
Alec was conscious and able to keep her honest then things would be
different. Ditto if she had a better history. As it is, there is just
too much chance that she's going to turn on us at the worst possible
time."

"Very
well, I'll begin using one of the burner phones to make the
arrangements with Mallory. With any luck she'll already be there in
the vehicle with Lori."

"Thanks,
Donovan. Make sure that she lets Lori know that we aren't going to
stand for her collecting any pawns. The humans are all to be allowed
to go back to their normal lives with nothing more lasting than an
order not to report that we were ever in the area. Any enforcers are
to be killed on the spot."

Donovan
nodded. "What about once we are past the blockade? We're going
to need to leave the communications suite off for an extended period
of time still if we're going to remain under the Coun'hij's radar.
I'm not sure that goal is compatible with the amount of time Master
Alec has left."

"Once
we are outside of the Coun'hij's secure perimeter, I'll be taking
Alec with me and breaking off from the rest of the group. I'll need
one of the SUV's and some cash. Eighty thousand dollars should be
more than enough."

"No."

"Excuse
me? You agreed that I would be giving the orders around here,
Donovan, you can't go changing the rules on me now."

"Is
that so, Mistress Paige? Not even if you change the rules yourself? I
will not let you take Alec away from the safety of the group."

"There
isn't any other choice, Donovan. I have to do this."

"You're
going to try and rejoin him in his dream, aren't you? Even though he
didn't want you to risk it."

"Of
course I am, but this is bigger than that. Part of what is keeping
Lori in line is the idea that there are some lines that she can't
cross, lines that will cause Alec to come after her. We can pile
women around her until they are twenty deep, but all it would take is
her getting her hands on a male hybrid with the right power to foil
all of our security efforts.

"Alec
is the one person she'll always have to be worried about. As long as
you can make sure that she doesn't get her hands on Puppeteer or
Dream Stealer she'll know that Alec could always cut through her
defenses like they didn't even exist."

"But
how will she continue to…ah, I see. You wish to introduce an
element of doubt as to Master Alec's ultimate fate."

"Yeah.
It's risky, but there will always be a chance that I succeeded in
besting Dream Stealer and maybe that will be enough to keep her from
giving into the worst inside of her."

"You
really think that Alec would stay away from his people if you
succeeded? He's not the kind to shirk a responsibility."

"I
know, but there is a chance that I can convince him that he'll be
able to do more good striking from the shadows. If the Coun'hij
believes that he's dead then there is a chance that they'll lower
their guard. Don't you see, Donovan, this is the best of both worlds.
Regardless of whether I succeed or fail, Alec will still have created
a legacy that has a chance of doing you some good. I've told you that
I'm going to do my best to convince Alec to disappear if he survives,
so you'll always have to wonder. Every time a group of vampires turns
up dead you'll wonder if it was Alec."

"You'll
have to make arrangements to make sure that your corpses don't turn
up if you fail. That would ruin everything."

"I
know. Program Sergio's number into my phone. I won't use him, but
I'll get him to give me a list of people he thinks are trustworthy.
I'll have one of them dispose of us."

Donovan
looked different in that moment. Despite the gray hairs and wrinkles,
he looked like a lost little boy. "Master Alec would never have
contemplated something like this. If you're successful you will have
turned him into something uncomfortably close to a religious figure."

"I
know, he never would have wanted that for himself, but it's the best
thing for our people. If things go as badly for the rebellion as I
suspect they will, then they are going to need something bigger than
themselves to believe in. If that means you and Mallory have to
create the church of Alec Graves, then so be it."

Whatever
Donovan was about to say was preempted by the ringing of the burner
phone on the table next to Alec.

"I
thought you said this was a clean phone, Donovan. We can't afford to
get traced right now."

"I
just pulled it out of the manufacturer's packaging myself this
morning, Mistress Paige. It's as clean as it's possible for one of
our phones to be. There is no possible way for the Coun'hij to have
that number."

I
frowned at the phone. Lately all of the surprises in my life had been
bad ones. That didn't stop me from answering the phone though.

"Yeah?"

"I
won't use names, that would be incredibly imprudent."

It
was a man's voice, one with a slight accent I couldn't place, one
that was vaguely familiar.

I
cleared my voice, unaccountably uncomfortable. "Fine, no names,
but you're going to give me an idea who it is I'm talking to. Where
did we first meet?"

"I'm
not sure that telling you that would mean anything, but more recently
we ran into each other in a Manhattan park. I apologize—it was
an unexpectedly stressful night and I wasn't at my best."

It
was the old man, the one who had saved Isaac, Jasmin and me from the
werewolf. I recognized his voice now, but I still wanted to be sure.

"Who
were you expecting to see that night?"

"Your
friend from south of the border. To be honest I'm still not sure of
long-term implications of that change, but we've come much too far to
try and pull out now. There's nothing to do but continue forward the
best we can and hope that things turn out okay."