Awakened (10 page)

Jace fetched the soda bottle and put the half-empty bottle back on the bar. I didn’t
glance around for the top—which I couldn’t find—as Mia grabbed a few napkins from
the takeout bag that was left on the bar and rushed over to clean up the spill. She
tried to wipe all the spilled soda off the tile floor, but the few napkins she had
weren’t enough. Jace retrieved a towel from the edge of the sink. He returned and
waved Mia away, then knelt down to clean the spilled soda. Mia placed the wet napkins
in the trash and then sat down at the bar.

I worried that Kale wouldn’t be able to hear Jace out. His eyes were completely black,
and his face contorted with rage. I went to Mia to pull her away from what I knew
was about to be a war zone.

“Wha—” Mia gasped as I grabbed her and pulled her up. I hadn’t grabbed her wounded
arm, but I made her knock over the soda bottle again, spilling more of it—a small
price to pay, to keep her out of the collision that was about to happen.

Jace had to see it coming. He sighed and finished cleaning before he stood. “I know
that you don’t believe in the Council and their work, but—”

“Ha!” Kale barked, his voice sounding rough and used. “Three old men searching for
what they did not deserve. I don’t believe that Aleixandre truly understands all these
deaths and lies are on his head.” Kale moved past Jace and grabbed the barstool. He
threw it—it slammed into the floor, sending splinters of wood throughout the air.

Mia and I both jumped back. I bit back the urge to try to calm him down. More information
was coming from the argument than Kale and Jace had told us. Not that most of it made
sense, but still it was more information that Mia and I could piece together later
when we were alone.

Kale, still fuming, started to pace. “Stefano and Nicosi are lucky, death being a
freedom not many can have!”

“Who considers death a freedom?” Mia squealed. I all but put my hand over her mouth
to shut her up, but too late. Kale turned to us, his black irises bleeding into the
white eyeball. Mia got out of her seat and stepped behind me, and I was glad for it.
Kale looked fierce, and neither Jace nor I could’ve probably stopped him if he were
to get any more out of hand.

I held my hands up, throwing a white flag being in a battle I hadn’t even entered.
The division could prove to be fatal, and as much as we all wanted to go our separate
ways and find Ella, that wasn’t going to work. “Kale, I want Ella back. So do you,
Mia, and Jace. So we have to work together.”

I didn’t know what else to say or what more I could add. Kale was still seething and
pacing. He glared at me with an intensity that I’d never before seen in him. Could
I take him? I wasn’t some macho guy, but if necessary, I would defend myself and Mia.

Something changed in Kale’s eyes, as if he sensed my thoughts. A silent challenge
exuded from him and quivered between us, murky and dense. Kale held my stare, a devilish
smile resting on his lips.

I didn’t fear him. I should have, but I couldn’t show fear with Kale and Jace. They
were both fearless, as they’d shown me a few days ago when Laurent came looking for
Ella. If I couldn’t stand up to Kale, how could I even hope to help when they stood
against Laurent, to save and protect Ella? I met his stare head-on.

“Look, man I know you care about her,” I said, strengthening my voice and raising
my chin. I didn’t think it any of his business how I felt about Ella, but if that
was what it took to get him to settle down… “We all do. Hell, I think I lov—”

“Don’t!” Kale’s eyes were no longer dark. He stepped back and closed his eyes, taking
what I assumed was a calming breath before he opened them again.

“Man, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you think you are the only one here
who wants to find Ella.” I shook my head in annoyance. “You aren’t the only one here
who has sacrificed!” Rage flared in my chest. “You and Jace have a past—I get it,
but that’s just what it should be.”

“You know nothing of the past he and I share.”

“Not for lack of trying,” Mia whispered.

Kale snarled.

“She’s right. You two tell us nothing, and then act like Ella—the girl I’ve known
my entire life—is your sole responsibility, as if what is best for her is for the
two of you to decide. But I’m willing to give my all for her. I’m ready to step up
and sacrifice my safety—my life, if need be, so don’t sit here on some invisible high
horse looking down on us.” I caught my breath, a knot in my stomach and my balled
fists trembling.

Rather than act like the reasonable, rational adult I expected, Kale laughed, looking
angry, even furious. “You don’t get it, do you? I have sacrificed my safety and my
life for her!”

Everyone in the room was silent. Jace stood in the corner, smiling.

“What’s so damned funny?” I asked. He shook his head, pissing me off even more. Mia
and I were so in the dark, it wasn’t funny, and whatever secrets those two shared
needed to come out.

“I get it. We all want Ella back, and we have to work together.” Kale’s voice had
finally dropped a few decibels. He snatched Jace’s list from the table. “What’s this?”

Jace moved around the table and grabbed the paper from Kale. “This is the P.O. Box
where we are to pick up our satellite phones, laptop, and weapons if needed, and a
list of places and people I can call on, if need be.”

At the mention of weapons, I looked at Mia. She had to be wondering about what she’d
gotten into, as I was.

“It also has the private number for my techie and Servitto, who will both be helping
us.” Jace returned the paper to his pocket and looked from Kale to me and then to
Mia. If the Council was able to supply us all that, then they had to have some heavy-duty
resources to find Ella, and we needed them on our side.

“I know that none of you trust me, but I am not with the Council, right now. I am
looking for Ella.” Jace looked straight at Kale. “And I need your help to find her.
Laurent is your master, after all.”

Kale took the words like a punch in the gut before turning away from us. He grabbed
his cell phone and headed for the sliding glass door that led to the backyard. Kale
grabbed the handle, and he turned to Jace, eyes flickering black. “
Je ne suis pas la seule personne qui réclame un maître
.”

Kale went out and slammed the door behind him so hard it shook the walls and windows.
Mia’s arms were wrapped tightly around her body, as if that was the only thing holding
her up. I pulled her close, patting her back.

“What did he just say?” I asked Jace as Mia snuggled in closer. I looked down at her,
regretting that I had been so adamant about involving her in this. I just didn’t want
to leave her alone.

She shook her head, anger and confusion whirling in her eyes. “What the heck is going
on Alex?” Mia pulled away and power walked toward Jace.

Before Jace answered me, Mia moved from my arms and pointed her sharp pastel-painted
finger an inch from his nose. “You and Kale are starting to really piss me off.”

She ran her hands through her hair and released an annoyed sigh. “We have been here
for two hours, and Alex and I still have no clue what is going on.”

“Or where Ella is,” I added, moving to stand next to Mia. She nodded in agreement.

Jace sighed and motioned for us to wait in the living room. He went outside to get
Kale. I hoped that Mia and I would finally get some truth from this. It seemed as
if everywhere we turned there was a new threat or a new lie keeping us from finding
Ella.

I didn’t want to let anyone down. Mia needed my help, my family needed me, Jace and
Kale needed a referee, and Ella needed to be found. It all rested on my shoulders,
and I wasn’t sure how much more I could carry. When would it all be too much? When
would I fail, as I’d failed Ella?

Kale

I paced around the living room, deep in thought. Mia’s insistent chattering and Alex’s
deep voice radiated both squeaks and bass from the base of my spine to my temples.
My head throbbed, while my vision and hearing heightened—my body was preparing itself
for the hunt.

La Luxure
had gotten louder, begging for me to succumb, and it was difficult to ignore.
La Luxure
waited, searching for a weakness and planning its attack. I’d beaten the beast before,
but it had never been this bad. Though Jace and I had discussed how important it was
to keep my
diseased
status from this ill-formed group, I could think of little else but sinking my teeth
into his neck. But Alex and Mia learning about my condition would only take time and
energy we needed for finding Ella.

With the evidence Jace had found of the Council’s corruption, time was of the essence.
They had more skills, weapons, and knowledge than we did, and they could easily find
her first. We were in Moose Nose village in my—no, in Daniel Barnes’s—cottage, the
one I’d brought Ella to, the one where I’d lost all reason and kissed her, felt her
warm soft skin against my own. I wasn’t a man of many needs, but since that night,
I wondered how I had gone without her touch for so long without going mad. The heat
of her fingers as they traced my skin, taste of her lips as she explored mine, the
swell of her chest as she took each breath.

“Kale!” Mia screeched, dislodging the memory of Ella and slamming me back into the
present. “What is going on with you? We all called you like fifty times!”

She exaggerated. They’d each called my name once before Mia’s screech. Ever since
I’d come back inside, Mia and Alex had talked nonstop.

“What?” I tried to hide the annoyance, but lately that had been growing close to impossible.
The voice of la Luxure whispered to me, but I ignored it and Mia’s smooth long neck.

“Alex wants to know why it’s safe for us to be here but not in Cedar.”

I glanced at Alex. His chest swelled, and his heartbeat increased. His fear was for
Ella, not in response to me, and that lessened the urge to drink from him. He crossed
his well-defined arms over his chest a ridiculous show of dominance as he eyed me
like I was his prey. The vein in his neck called to me in a language I had once spoken
fluently and found impossible to resist. He had a lot to learn, and the only thing
stopping me from schooling him was Ella’s feelings for him.

“You’ll have to trust me.” I couldn’t explain without revealing what I really was;
nor did I trust Jace with that information. I had another home in Daniel’s name, in
addition to this one, and I didn’t want to risk Jace finding out about it and revealing
it to the Council.

“No, that’s not enough.”

I quirked an eyebrow and smirked at Alex’s authoritarian tone. He gave me a hard glare.

It was so easy to annoy that boy. He needed a lesson and fast. Too bad it wouldn’t
be me that taught it to him.

He continued, “We need real answers, and now. It’s been too long since her disappearance.”
His voice broke slightly, and he shifted his stance. “And we want answers, Kale—real
ones.”

He felt more for Ella than she had initially told me, though he tried to hide it.
Though it angered me, I accepted it. Ella would be well suited with him. He had everything
to offer her that I couldn’t: life and a future—but that didn’t mean that he would
speak to me as a commander.

I added silk to my voice to help calm the humans. “It is safer here; this cottage
cannot be traced to me.”

That much was true. I had obtained the house only because I was Chorý. Twenty-six
years ago, I had saved Daniel’s mother—nine months pregnant with Daniel—from a hit
arranged by her ex-husband. That particular night, I’d been in the mood for vengeance,
and when I came upon the four men standing over a woman, I’d gotten my wish. I’d never
told her that her ex-husband thought that the lives of her and his son were worth
no more than a thousand dollars and a case of beer—nor what I had done to him two
nights later. In saving her life, I relieved my true nature; instead of running away,
she promised me a favor. All I’d needed was a new identity and a place to live, which
she granted me. Saving her had been the first time I felt as though my disease was
more than a burden, but that feeling hadn’t lasted long.

Jace moved from his hiding place in the corner to stand directly in front of the fireplace.
“If it can’t be traced to you, then maybe it can be traced to the person who allows
you to squat here, and
there
is the link to you that you believe does not exist.” His ice blue eyes spoke the
words that he would not say in front of Alex and Mia. He had been eyeing us all suspiciously,
as if we were the ones with blood ties to a corrupt ancient Council.

Jace, no matter how helpful he had been recently, would never gain the knowledge of
how I came about this home. Alex stood taller, as if Jace’s words shielded him from
my annoyance. I snorted at his ignorance and wondered if Jace’s true goal was to have
me feed from him and expose myself. He had never been my ally, and even now with our
common goal, I wouldn’t put it past him to have some backstabbing scheme up his sleeve.

I needed them to leave, but Alex and Mia needed answers. If we didn’t tell them something,
they would become liabilities. “If anyone here believes that they are not safe,”—I
pointed to the door, hoping that Jace would leave—“there is the exit. Take it, and
please don’t look back.”

Mia paled. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Her small pale frame shrunk and
her round blue eyes seemed desolate and fearful—a quick attitude change from earlier.
She was not safe; the bald Chorý had taken a liking to her after smelling her blood.
Ella would want me to protect her, and I would stay close to her until I figured out
what he was after. No need to alarm Mia if I could handle the situation.

“This is getting us nowhere.” Mia’s voice sounded as if it belonged to a child lost
in a storm. “Before Ella left, she told us that she heard voices and saw seriously
funked-up stuff.”