Shadow Soldier (13 page)

The more he talked, the more he realized he really didn’t understand it himself, but unlike Roux, he didn’t need to know how all the working parts moved together. The moment he’d laid eyes on her, he’d felt it. While she hadn’t been as immediately struck by the connection forming between them as he had, she clearly felt something now. Otherwise, he doubted they’d be having the conversation.

Trying to make sense of something that defied all logic and rationale couldn’t be done. So, Deke stopped trying and simply spoke from his heart.

“It’s safety and it’s comfort. It’s not just a feeling, but like this living, breathing entity that consumes you and fills this emptiness you didn’t even realize you had.”

“Like finding a piece of yourself you didn’t know was missing,” Roux added, her voice quiet, thoughtful.

“Yes.” He smiled, encouraged by her response. “You see this person, the one person in all the world that fate has chosen just for you, and everything changes. Your priorities shift, and you’d do anything to make them happy, to keep them safe.”

A lovely shade of pink swept over her cheeks, and she chuckled under her breath. “Is intense jealousy part of this package? Or is that just a bonus?”

“Gemini in general are territorial and intensely protective. We don’t share, and we’ll do anything—
anything
—to eliminate a threat to our mates.”

“I guess it’s not really so different than humans, just more intense,” Roux agreed after a significant hesitation. “I mean, we’re pretty big on monogamy and loyalty for the most part.” She stopped, tilted her head to the side, and glared at him in accusation. “You were going to let me leave.”

“Yes,” he admitted, “but only after I did everything I could to make you stay.”

“So, how does that work? What happens when making your mate happy conflicts with keeping her safe?”

“Protecting her—you—wins every time.” He could see the confusion returning, dimming the brilliance of her green eyes. “In this case, letting you go probably would have been safer.”

“Explain. Does this have to do with your dangerous-secret tattoo?”

He had to give his girl credit. She had good instincts, and she didn’t waste time with insecurity. During their conversation, she’d had justifiable questions, but never once had she doubted that a connection between them actually existed. Not only did Deke appreciate her confidence, he found it sexy as hell.

“The tattoo isn’t secret, but we don’t exactly flaunt it.”

“But what it represents is secret.”

He nodded, pushing away from the table to stand. “Come on, kitten, let’s move this party to the living room.”

“I didn’t even finish my bacon.” She pouted for a heartbeat, then grabbed all three strips of bacon and followed him into the living room. “What?” she asked around a mouthful of pork when he shook his head at her. “I like bacon.”

She lowered herself into the far corner of the sofa and tucked her feet under her. While she waited, staring up at him expectantly, Deke removed a small notebook and a pen from the end table drawer. Joining her on the sofa, he drew a crude replica of his tattoo and passed the notepad over to her.

“Duty, loyalty, courage,” he said, pointing to the each three stars within in the hollow circle of the moon in turn. Then he tapped the star that sat outside the crescent, right at the uppermost point. “And above all, sacrifice.”

“The moon?” Roux asked, tracing the drawing with her fingertip.

“The Revenant keeps watch over everyone the moon touches.”

“The who?”

The Revenant had been formed long before the Purge to defend those unable or unwilling to protect themselves—humans and Gemini alike. They moved in secret, sticking to the shadows like phantoms. Even in paranormal circles, the Revenant was just a myth, a legend told around campfires to give people hope and optimism that things could get better.

Roux finished her bacon, then pushed the pen through the spiral spine of the notebook before tossing them both to the coffee table. Sitting up a little straighter, she folded her hands in her lap and watched him intently as he explained the history of the Revenant. Occasionally, she’d nod or frown or lift an eyebrow, but she never interrupted.

“I know you think I don’t understand what’s it like out there, but I do.” He’d seen more than she could even begin to imagine. “Trinity Grove is better than most, but far from perfect. There’s a different way, though, a place where everyone is equal and free.”

Some came to Trinity Grove to stay, but some only stayed long enough to rest and replenish their supplies before moving on to the next checkpoint. Revenant controlled havens had been set up across North America, mostly in the Deadlands, but a few had been hidden within populated cities.

“We hide them in a room beneath the infirmary at the Bastille,” he concluded, holding his breath for her reaction.

“You’re like an underground railroad,” Roux said, bobbing her head as though it made perfect sense. “I’m assuming these rest stops all lead somewhere. So, where is this Atlantis?”

Caught up in Roux’s excitement and enthusiasm, Deke couldn’t help but laugh. She had the most infectious smile, and happiness looked damn good on her.

“Actually, we call it Olympus. It’s in Washington, on the edge of the Olympic National Park.

She wrinkled her nose. “Washington?”

“What’s wrong with Washington?”

“Nothing. With a name like Olympus, I just expected somewhere a bit more magical, I guess.” She waved a hand and tilted her head. “Have you seen it?”

Deke nodded slowly. “I was born there, and I spent a little time in the mountains right after the Purge started.”

“That’s where your sisters are, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Evie and Jazz are in Washington, waiting for me to come home.”

It had been almost a year since he’d seen his two younger sisters, and it would probably be longer than that before he could be with them again. It was a price he had to pay to know they were safe.

“I had a sister once,” Roux whispered, moisture gathering along her lower lashes. “A vampire killed her.”

“Do you want to talk about her?” Deke didn’t know what to say to comfort her. He’d be devastated if something happened to one of his sisters.

Roux parted her lips as if she wanted to say something more on the subject, but she stopped and shook her head. “Okay, so say I believe you, that this place in Washington exists.” Leaning back, she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her shins. “Why bring us here? Me, Cade, Greg, the others? You knew we were going to raid that grocer, so why not hide us out under the Bastille and then send us on our way?”

“Yes, we knew you where your party would be, and it’s not that simple.”

“How did you know?”

She’d find out eventually, and Deke hated keeping secrets from her. “Nevah. The Wardens use human spies, usually one of the blood donors who live in the mansion.”

When they received word of rebels nearby, they sent out spies to infiltrate the group and report back. In the beginning, if the party posed no threat to the city, the scout would quietly slip away without anyone being the wiser. In recent months, however, the royal family had adopted a zero tolerance policy, and anyone found within city limits was to be detained on sight. The guards hadn’t been given a reason or an explanation, not one that Deke bought anyway.

“Something is going on in Trinity Grove,” he concluded. “I don’t know what yet, but until I can figure it out, I have to play by the rules.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted Nevah. We were all suspicious of her, but there are so few of us now…”

She trailed off, and Deke didn’t encourage her. In fact, the selfish part of him hoped she’d drop the subject entirely. Roux toed the line, navigating closer to questions he couldn’t so easily answer. She wasn’t ready to hear the truth about the genocide of her race, and maybe, she never would be.

“I’ve seen the people in this town.” She spoke quietly, staring at a point just over his shoulder. “Humans are treated with at least a measure of respect, but they’re still watched over like criminals.” Finally, she met his gaze, but her lips turned down at the corners. “We’re not slaves, but no one is allowed to leave, so tell me. What am I missing?”

Of course she’d bring up the very thing he’d just been hoping to avoid. As before, he found he couldn’t lie to her. She probably wouldn’t believe him, and worse, she might even hate him, but he couldn’t hide the reality of it from her forever.

“Do you know how the Purge started?”

Roux shrugged. “Not really. I figured it was part of the Coalition’s plan.” Before she’d even finished speaking, she started shaking her head. “I guess it doesn’t matter much to the other Gemini, but why would the vampires kill off their food source?”

They wouldn’t.

Deke didn’t know how many Gemini had been captured, or how many officials in the human government had known about the paranormal world, but it had been enough. To prevent widespread panic, they’d kept the knowledge from the masses while their scientists had hidden away in underground labs to perform their experiments.

The Revenant had freed as many of the Gemini as they could, but with facilities all around the world, their efforts had little impact to impede the governments’ research. Humans hadn’t just experimented, either. They’d tortured the vampires and shifters for information, mostly about how many Gemini existed and where they could be found.

Eventually, after they’d pieced together all the information, they’d estimated that every one in five thousand people on the planet was some manner of paranormal creature. Then, the panic began. Governments in North America and Europe began to blame all manner of violent crimes and large-scale attacks on the Gemini, labeling them as terrorists and murders, and it hadn’t stopped there.

Searching for a way to eliminate the threat, scientists worked around the clock to develop a serum that attacked a gene sequence exclusive to the Gemini. The serum had worked, but they needed a faster, more effective way to administer the drug than individual injections.

An airborne biological weapon had been their solution. They’d pumped the virus into the air filtration systems of several international flights, and sent crop dusting planes to more remote regions. Deke didn’t know what had gone wrong from there. Within a week, the infection had mutated and spread, decimating more than three-quarters of the human population and altering the Gemini in unexpected ways.

“We did this,” Roux whispered when he’d finished. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, and her lower lip began to tremble. “We did this.”

“I’m so sorry, Roux.”

“You said the Gemini had been altered. What does that mean?”

“I told you earlier that vampires are sensitive to sunlight, but what I didn’t tell you is that it’s a side effect of the virus.” He spoke quickly, eager to rid himself of the secrets. “The virus makes it painful for all shifters to transform, but whatever part of us it attacked, the wolves got it the worst. Other than teeth and claws, they can’t shift at all.”

“Is that why they’re so aggressive?”

Deke rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. “Think of it like a person who holds everything in, never complains or fights back. Then one day, the pressure becomes too much, and they explode into a violent rage. It’s the same with shifters who don’t transform often enough.”

“Oh, my god,” Roux whispered, pressing her fingertips to her lips.

Keeping his expression impassive, Deke nodded again. “The wolves fight and fuck a lot to keep their rage in check, but in the beginning, a lot of them turned feral.”

Unable to bear the pained expression on Roux’s face, he held his arms open, beckoning her to him. To his surprise and relief, she didn’t argue or hesitate before crawling into his lap and burying her face against the side of his neck. She didn’t cry, nor did she speak. They just sat in silence, Roux curled in his arms while he stroked her silky hair.

“I’d like to go the Bastille today,” she whispered long minutes later.

“You’re registered now, kitten. You can go anywhere you want as long as you don’t leave the city.”

“I know.” Arching her neck, Roux placed a soft, lingering kiss against the corner of his mouth. “I want you to come with me. Will you take me?”

Closing his eyes, Deke rubbed his cheek over the top of her head, inhaling her sweet, intoxicating scent. If there was anything he wouldn’t do for her, he hadn’t found it yet.

“Anywhere you want to go, kitten.”

“And I want you to stay this time.”

He smiled into her hair. “Always.”

It had taken Roux a few days to sort through all of her feelings after learning the truth about the Purge. The knowledge had forced her to reevaluate all the anger, pain, resentment, and bitterness she’d been bottling up inside and confront the cause of it.

For the longest time, she’d placed herself and her kind on a moral pedestal, convinced that humans were the superior and righteous beings. The Gemini had taken everything from them. Her people had been murdered, brutalized, and enslaved for the pure entertainment of a savage race.

Abby had said during Roux’s first day in Trinity Grove that the world wasn’t black and white, and now, she finally understood what the woman had meant. Good and bad existed, not just in every race, but also within every being. Roux had done things she’d rather forget, and while not exactly evil, she wouldn’t classify them as “good” either.

The Gemini hadn’t destroyed the world. They hadn’t asked for the tragedies that had befallen them any more than she had. A small, quiet part of her even sympathized with the werewolves. Not all of them had been crazed killers before the Purge, and she couldn’t imagine the agony they still endured from the infection.

As clichéd as it sounded, in essence, the truth had set her free. When she’d thought the Gemini had caused the Purge, she’d been prepared to slaughter them all without exception. Humans had condemned the vampires and shifters just for existing. So, as much as it pained her, she had to admit the Gemini had handled things much better than she had. Hell, humans had nearly destroyed the planet and caused the extinction of their own race. Maybe it was time for a revolution.