Avenge (25 page)

“
Not yet, my dear. You have
a very important job to do, one that will get you on that team
you’ve been longing to be a part of and back in everyone’s good
graces.”

I glanced over at Amelia, who was
practically salivating at the idea. I knew she was disappointed
that she wasn’t a member of our Gideon team, but she was promoted
and ran the Guide training program. It was a position even higher
than being a member of our team.

I couldn’t worry about that now. I
needed to put the last piece in play so I could free Max and end
all this. Behind me, Jessica continued to cling to me. I bent down
to reassure her.

“
Little One, you’re going
to go with this nice lady, and she’s going to take you where you
need to go. She won’t hurt you, I promise.” I looked over at Amelia
as I said this, staring daggers that let her know she’d better hold
that promise.

Amelia sauntered over to me and held
out her hand expectantly. Jessica—who was obviously wise beyond her
years—refused to leave my side. “I don’t like her. Can’t I stay
with you?”

Amelia’s lip curled hearing this, but
I didn’t acknowledge Jessica. Amelia’s hurt feelings were the last
thing on my mind. I took Jessica by the shoulders and pulled her in
front of me, facing Amelia. I leaned in and whispered in her ear,
“You’ve gotta trust me here. I know it’s scary, and you don’t know
her or like her, but trust that I would always do everything in my
power to make sure you are safe and protected. Do you believe
me?”

Jessica nodded, and I kissed her hair
before lowering my voice so only she could hear me. “Good girl. I
need you to be brave. Now, very slowly walk up to her and take her
hand. Tell her you want to see Cassie as soon as you leave this
room, and that I promised you that Cassie would give you a present
from me. Make sure she takes you to her, okay? Can you remember
that?”

Jessica turned into me and hugged me
tight, crying once again. “I love you so much, Lucy. I promise,
I’ll do what you said. I won’t forget. I won’t let you
down.”

“
You never could, sweet
girl.” I took one final embrace, and pushed her away from me. “Now
go. Everything will be okay, I promise. I love you.”

Amelia took a few steps forward and
grabbed her hand. “Let’s go, Jessica. There are a lot of people
here who want to meet you. I’m going to take you away from all
these mean people. I’m going to rescue you from the bad guys. What
do you say to that?”

“
But what about Lucy? She’s
not a bad guy.”

Amelia growled in the back of her
throat, but Jessica missed it. “No, she’s not. But she is going to
stay and make sure they all go to jail while I make sure you’re
nice and safe. Remember when we get there to tell them that I was
the one who took you away from here, okay?”

Jessica didn’t take her eyes off me,
but nodded in agreement. I gave her a small smile and winked, and
she walked out the door.

I swallowed against the lump in my
throat. It was finally time and I needed to be on top of my game
now more than ever if I had any hope of pulling this off. I spun
away from the door and faced Alastair one last time.

“
One down, one to go,
Alastair. As soon as you show me Max is safe, my secrets and I are
all yours.”

“
Tit for tat, my dear. I
gave you a huge tit.”

Snickers from the goons behind him
made me roll my eyes. “Really, boys? What are you, in middle
school?”

Alastair shot them a warning look at
they quickly muffled their snickers with fake coughing. “You’re
going to have to give me something else, Lucy.”

“
What do you want,
Alastair?”

“
Where are the other teams
located? In what states?”

I sighed, weighing how I should
answer. I couldn’t lie, he’d see it. For some reason, he was able
to see through any lies like I wore a sign saying “I’m lying.” I
could only assume it was because he was so close to the root of
evil. I knew I needed to answer truthfully, but I didn’t want to
put other teams in danger either. “I only know of a few. I can’t be
sure of how many there are total.”

“
Then you
will tell me what you
do
know.”

I ground my teeth, hating what I was
about to do. If this didn’t work… “There are teams in Florida,
Louisiana, California, New York, and Maryland that I know about. A
few overseas. There may be more, but those are the only ones I‘m
certain about.”

Alastair smiled widely, reminding me
of the Cheshire cat. “There, that wasn’t so bad, was
it?”

“
You disgust
me.”

He chuckled, like I amused him and
turned away from me. “Remove the fangs, and place him in the
location we discussed previously. But make sure he won’t wake up
for a while. I can’t have him ruining all my fun with
her.”

I shivered at his suggestion, but
didn’t stop looking him in the eye. The goons departed, leaving me
alone with Alastair. “Now, I’m going to need you to come here and
put this on.” He held up what looked like a leather collar and
dangled it in front of him by one finger. It swung lazily, and when
I took a closer look at it, it reminded me of a dog collar or
something that the Goth kids would wear. Seeing the confused look
on my face, he flipped a small switch on a remote control.
Instantly, several razor like blades on the inside of the band
popped out of the collar.

My eyes widened in fear and my legs
refused to move. It looked like a torture device and I had no idea
what he wanted to do with it.

“
Just in case you get any
wise ideas, this will make sure that I don’t have to touch that
pretty silver skin of yours, and yet I can still drain you in a
matter of minutes of every drop of vital Patronus blood you have.
Your body will never be able to heal in time. You will die. Those
men know not to give Max his soul back until you’re wearing this
pretty necklace.”

“
Shit,” I whispered too low
for him to hear. This definitely put a cramp in my plan. But I
couldn’t risk them not holding up their end. That wasn’t an option.
I needed a Plan B.

I slowly convinced my feet to walk
forward, my heart beating so hard I was sure a drum would have been
quieter. Each step was like walking through quicksand. My body
rebelled against the very idea, and I could feel my silver skin
swirling under my bracelet, begging to be released. I forced the
urge back and willed my body forward.

When I finally stood before
him, I held perfectly still and allowed him to place the collar
around my neck, the click of the lock sounding like a gunshot in my
ears. I winced, and let out a sigh. It was out of my hands
now.

Chapter
Thirty

“
Why don’t you have a seat
here?” Alastair pointed to a footstool beside him. “You might as
well get comfortable. You’ll be here for a little while as they
take care of Max.”

I crouched down and sat rigidly,
counting down the minutes in my head as I thought of a way to get
the remote control away from him. I needed that out of his
possession before the rest of the plan could fall into place. If my
team got the message I hid, that is…

“
Why don’t we go ahead and
start our little conversation while we wait? No use in sitting
here. You know what they say about idle minds.”

“
It’s idle hands, you
moron. And I’m not saying a word until it’s done.”

A tingle in my bracelet indicated I
had a message. I didn’t dare check it and scowled to keep a smile
from growing on my face.

My team had found the clue I’d left
behind. It was time.

The first thing I needed to do was get
him out of that chair. It protected him too much, and I needed him
to expose as much vulnerability as possible if I had a hope of
making it out of this intact.

While I’d been sitting there, an idea
came to me. It was crazy, and a last resort, but desperate times
and all that.

“
I need to walk. I can’t
stay seated. It’s driving me crazy.” I stood up and paced,
lengthening my stride with each short lap. Alastair didn’t stop me
as I stood; he had no reason to with that remote sitting next to
him propped up on the arm of his chair. I needed as much distance
as possible between us so when the time was right, he would have no
choice but to come toward me and away from the safety of the corner
where he sulked.

When I reached the corner of the room
opposite Alastair, I made my move. Keeping my back to him, I
conjured up a small pocketknife and made a one-inch slit in my
neck, just under the collar. Before he could notice the swift
movement, I allowed the knife to vanish back into my bracelet. I
swiveled my body toward him, allowing him to see the thick blood
that dripped in heavy globs down my neck. I gasped in fake pain,
jerking my head to the left and grabbing my neck with my hand. “Oh!
What did you do?” I cried, and fell to my knees.

“
What’s wrong with you?
What are you doing?” Alastair sat up a little straighter in his
chair at tilted his head curiously but didn’t move. I needed
more.

“
Why would you do this?” I
held my hand to the wound, pressing it harder to force more blood
out while making it appear as if I was protecting the injury. The
warm, crimson liquid flowed even faster as I pushed harder, soaking
the top of my tee shirt. “I thought you wanted information from me
first. Now, I can’t…” I made a choking noise in my throat,
stumbling further. “I can’t…”

Alastair jumped up and walked toward
me, muttering about malfunction and defective pieces of junk. I
kept my head down, but my gaze never left him out of the corner of
my eye. When he was in the center of the room, I punched a button
on my bracelet and screamed, “NOW!”

In the blink of an eye, my entire team
as well as several others dashed into the room, surrounding almost
every inch of the chamber. There must have been at least twenty
people in the tiny area, each one with weapons drawn and ready for
battle. They stood trembling, fingers twitching for the signal to
take him down. I recognized a few other Patroni from my realm, but
other than my team, I didn’t know most of them.

“
Grab the remote,” I yelled
to Lola, who was closest to the chair that Alastair vacated.
Alastair heard me and retreated, but there was nowhere for him to
go. He was surrounded and alone, having sent his goons with Max. He
was powerless to fight back against our numbers and fear swelled in
his eyes.

Lola retrieved the small device and
rushed over to me. “How do I get this off you?”

“
I don’t know, it locked in
place somehow. Whatever you do, don’t press that
button.”

Lola nodded, and began inspecting the
collar around my neck. While she looked, I glanced to my side at
the scene. James and Elizabeth were the clear leaders of the group,
issuing commands about searching other rooms, while Alastair stood
wide eyed and deadly still in the center.

“
You can give up now, and
we’ll let the Alpha and Omega know you cooperated,” James calmly
explained to Alastair. “If not, you’re still going there, but your
fate will be much worse.”

“
You stupid fools. Did you
really think I haven’t planned for every contingency?” Alastair
moved his hand down to his pants’ pocket as Adam and two others
attacked from behind. Before they could reach him, he’d already
sounded the alarm and within seconds, dozens of vampires piled into
the room.

The fighting began immediately. No one
spoke, but I could hear a symphony of other sounds echoing off the
walls. The clank of metal and the tearing of flesh, the scuff of
feet as they volleyed for position all encapsulated my ears as I
stood frozen, desperately afraid of the device around my neck going
off.

Lola grabbed my hand and led me away
from the fray. She shoved me into a dark alcove full of storage
boxes while she continued to fiddle with the collar.

“
What’s happening out
there? Can you see how to release this collar?” I was anxious to
get out and join the battle. I knew they would need my shields,
even though they had Elizabeth who could help with that
too.