Awakened (13 page)

“You say that it is Ana’s fault that she is here?” he asked.

“No, I said that—”

“That it is her fault that she is still here.” He smiled a vicious humorless smile
that had me nervous of what he would say next. Darke reached his arm around me and
leaned in closer pushing me further onto the bed with his chest. He placed his mouth
to my ear. “Let’s say that you are correct in the assumption that it is Ana’s fault
that she has been put here against her will and not allowed to leave. Tell me, Ella,
whose fault is it that your parents were killed solely to bring your powers to the
surface? It was not this camp, but ones in the camp of people that you trust.”

Darke moved away to look in my eyes. When he seemed satisfied with the pain and anguish
that he’d placed there, he moved away and pet my hair. I closed my eyes, not caring
about the tears that fell, or the painful swelling of my heart at the lies that Darke
was willing to tell to hurt me. The Council hadn’t known who I was before I moved
to Cedar, so they couldn’t have killed my parents in the car crash. Darke was blowing
smoke, hoping that it would form some sort of truth to me, but he was wrong.

“Here, let me help you piece together the truth.” Darke moved away from me.

I let out a breath and slouched against the bed. I was weary, but I was still ready
to run.

“We did not know where you were until we found your records on file on the court system.
Kale did a very good job of destroying your records at the mental facility, but there
were more ways to find you than the paper files at that state-run institution.” Darke
meandered around the room. I couldn’t tell if he was lying or focusing on the story
to make sure that he got the details of the story correct. I straightened my spine
the rest of the way. My back popped; I winced. “I was in charge of getting that information,
and once I found it, we found you, which was almost a year after your parents’ death.”

He still hadn’t proved that my parent’s death was anything other than an unfortunate
accident. “My parents were killed by a drunk driver who drove them off of the—”

“Road and into a ditch. Your mother sustained a serious head trauma and died
en route
to the hospital.”

I held my breath. He was reciting the exact words from the paramedic’s report of the
night my parents were killed.
How could Darke know any of this if he wasn’t there?

“Shut up,” I whispered. I had the report memorized, but I hadn’t thought about them
in over a year. I hadn’t allowed myself to grieve or remember good times. I had just
shut everything out, and now it was crashing down on me, affecting me in ways I had
wanted to avoid. If it were my fault that my parents were dead, I wouldn’t—couldn’t—survive
it.

I took deep breaths to control my pain and anger. I wanted to pick something up and
throw it at Darke. I wanted to find a stake and ram it through his heart, even though
I wasn’t even sure that would harm him. I wanted him to hurt the way he was hurting
me.

“Your father held on for a few hours, but his internal bleeding was—”

I couldn’t let him finish. I stumbled forward, perhaps on my own accord or through
the shaking of my world as it crumbled around me. My vision blurred; tears fell hot
and thick down my face. My stomach lurched and did all I could to keep what little
bit of dinner I had eaten down.

“Shut up—shut up—shut up—shut up—
shut up
!” I screamed, getting louder with each repeat. I clamped my hands over my ears, blocking
out Darke’s words as I slowly slid to the ground.

The world around me was quaking ready to open up and swallow me whole, and I begged
for it—pleaded for it to take me and end this, once and for all.

He and Ana had both tried to prove that they weren’t as evil as Laurent and failed
miserably, proving only what I had thought from the beginning: that they were untrustworthy
and that my plan to escape was the right thing to do. I don’t know what I was thinking
when I believed being here would protect anyone. It was a stupid mistake. That night,
I should have screamed for Jace and Kale, not caring if it woke up Alex’s family.
No threat should have been enough to keep me quiet, but I was too afraid to draw attention
to them, afraid of what would happen to them if they tried to intervene.

I would be leaving this place if it was the last thing I ever did.

I felt rather than saw Darke move closer to me. He kneeled down before me and placed
his hand on my back, a gentle gesture I never would’ve expected from him. I jumped.

“Shh…” Darke wiped away the tears that still fell. I kept my eyes closed, unwilling
to face him. “We are all pawns in this world, those with power deciding how we live
and die. It has always been that way, and I fear that it will never change,” he whispered,
and the sadness in his voice called to me in a way that I recognized. “Your life has
been stolen from you, as was Ana’s. Laurent had beaten and broken her before he’d
discovered that she was not Hélène, the next Arc, but by then it was too late for
her. He would never let her go.

“He changed her into a monster and enslaved her to be the caretaker of each Arc that
he captured from there on out. If Ana ever did anything to displease an Arc, Laurent
will find her descendants and kills them in front of her,” Darke explained so quietly
that I found myself staring into his dark eyes believing every word from his mouth.

If I left, I couldn’t take Ana with me—Laurent would find her family and slaughter
them as punishment—but I still had to go. Being here wasn’t solving the problem. It
wasn’t keeping anyone safe, only placing more people in danger. If I wanted to protect
anyone, I would have to do it away from Laurent and with the Council, as I had originally
planned.

But if Darke’s story was true about my parents’ death, it seemed like the only other
people capable of doing that was the Council itself. The very people I had hoped to
protect me might have been responsible for the death of my parents.

Mia

I thought that I was taking everything really well until Jace started his story about
eternal life. I mean seriously, did he think we were stupid? A group of immortals
set to keep guard over Ella was asking way too much for me to believe. Funny thing
was, Alex was eating that crap up. I mean he was really into it, asking questions
and stuff like he truly believed what he was being fed.

The way he was eating up this so-called information, I wouldn’t have been surprised
if he asked to join the Council. Kale was still brooding over his argument with Jace,
while Jace stood in front of the fireplace explaining his life story. I crossed my
arms over my chest.

“When the men realized the mistake they had made in handing Laurent’s daughter over
to him after the ritual, they created the Council. At that time, they were creating
many immortals, and we stood a chance against Laurent—but over time, Aleixandre realized
what he was asking these men.”

I could see that the story was personal to Jace, but I was still not buying that there
were immortals. I was going to need some proof, but how would they do that? Jump off
of a building or something?

“He was asking that they spend an eternity working for their cause, taking no personal
time, no family, nothing,” Jace said. “Eternal life isn’t all that it seems, but many
still wanted it enough to be a slave to the Council, but over time, many defected
or just gave up.” Jace sounded sad, as if remembering a particular event.

“I don’t understand why would they sign up and then defect.” Confusion shadowed Alex’s
face. “To be a part something like that would be
amazing
!”

I stared at him like he was insane. Even if Jace’s story was true, who would want
to live forever trapped in the same job, without any kind of break? Alex obviously
was one of those people who would jump into a life decision without the proper amount
of planning and thought.

“Are you insane, Alex?” I asked harshly, not caring that my anger bled through my
words. He had to stop, use his head before he did something stupid that made us have
to save him or explain to his parents why he wouldn’t be coming home. “You would take
a prison sentence like that?”

The gleam in his eyes didn’t waver.

“You would leave your friends and family behind, again?” I knew how Alex had struggled
with leaving for college and his feelings about returning home. I probably shouldn’t
have used leaving his family like that—it was college, not war—but what choice did
I have?

Jace and Kale seemed to agree with me, but I couldn’t really tell what they were thinking.
They had done that exact thing that Alex was eager about.

Alex sat back and eyed me. “Yeah, I could,” he said forcefully. “People do it every
day, Mia. It’s called the US military. The US government asks the same of people,
and I don’t see you out their telling our troops that their choices were wrong.” Alex
shook his head in disappointment.

He was nuts. Comparing the US military to this group of people that he barely knew
was ridiculous. At least we knew what the military did, and in some cases, why. How
did he not see that? Okay so the Council had expensive equipment—Trackers, Retrievers,
techs, and all that crap—but it didn’t mean that they were immortal.

“There is a difference, Alex. The US military doesn’t ask—”

“Doesn’t ask for what, Mia?” He stared at me with hard eyes, getting pretty mad at
me for
caring
about him.

Jace and Kale stood away from us, watching silently. I wished that they would help
me or at least say something. They had started this nonsense.

“They don’t ask you to leave the ones you love; they don’t ask you to kill the enemy;
and they don’t ask for your life?” he demanded. “They ask for all of those things
and more. By law, once you join the military, you are their property. There is no
turning back. They own you, and you will serve for as long as you’re enlisted. The
Council asks the same of you, and I don’t see the difference.” His anger reached a
crescendo before he turned to Jace. “Where do I sign up?”

I screamed, solely because I didn’t know what else to do. “Do not be so stupid, Alex!”
I rushed to my feet. “Okay, I get that the military asks you to do all that, but they
are on a whole different level. The Council is not the military—you can’t even compare
the two. The fact that you seem to want to ignore that proves you aren’t thinking
straight.”

Kale was silent in the corner, and Jace looked a bit disappointed; he’d just explained
that they no longer made immortals, and Alex was still ready to sign on the dotted
line.

“You don’t even know if what he is saying is true!”

Alex waved away my concern. “I made the mistake of not trusting Ella once, and I will
not do it again. As a human, what can I do? But as one of them,”—Alex pointed to Jace—“It’d
be different. When we get Ella back, I could protect her a hell of a lot better than
I can now.”

Alex had obviously forgotten what happened when Ella put her faith in Kale and Jace.

“You’re forgetting what Jace told us, what Kale’s told us, and what’s actually happened
so far! Ella placed her faith in the Council, and she was taken that same night! Jace
even said the Council wants to
use
her, and you still want to join?” I was amazed that Alex couldn‘t see these things
for himself, that he’d let his guilt and fear over Ella blind him. He didn‘t answer
me. He just shook his head as if there was something that I was missing.

Was
I missing something? I glanced at Kale and Jace, hoping they might cue me in, but
no such luck.

“She trusted them, and I’m going to do the same thing. Where do I sign up?” he repeated
through clenched teeth.

I shook my head, threw my hands in the air, and then turned to Jace for help. He shook
his head and turned to Kale. I could tell that the explanation was not going how he
wanted it to go.

When he said nothing, I turned back to Alex, determined to detour him from joining
the Council, the one that Jace had just explained was going to use Ella for their
gain. “So, she trusted them, and look at what it got her!”

Kale visibly stiffened, and Jace took a step forward, crossing his arms over his chest,
his mouth set in a grim line. I didn’t care.

“Alex, jeez. Let’s look at reason here. Jace is telling you that he will live forever.
Forever
!” I stopped. There had to be a way for them to prove their immortality to us, and
if they couldn’t, Alex would stop his nonsense of wanting to sign at the dotted line.
I slowly turned to Jace.

He gave me an ice blue stare, then gave a slight slant of his head, acquiescing to
my demand for proof. I was sure that was the first time that he’d acquiesced to anyone
in a while—if ever. He had actually been nothing but nice to me.

Of course, it was probably to butter me up for what he told Alex and me.

Confusion dimmed Alex’s anger and lined Kale’s face.

“What would you have me do?” Jace asked.

Kale’s expression cleared. “Yes, Vesco, what will you do?”

There was more to the question than Kale had let on, I could see from the silent conversation
they held with their gazes. Was Kale uncomfortable with Jace proving that what he
was saying was true, or was it something else completely? Jace turned back to me and
smiled.

“Do it,” Alex insisted, reminding me he was in the room—a demand I was sure that Jace
was going to meet.

Darke

Compassion was a sentiment I thought I’d forgotten long ago, that was until I heard
Ana’s pleas to Ella. She understood nothing of Ana’s life here in this prison. Ella
and Hélène were so different, but that was a long time ago.

Hélène had understood more about Laurent and the dire situation that Fate had placed
her in. Ella was naïve, annoying; and I doubted her ignorance was real. Surely the
Council had told her the kind of man Laurent was—the kind that took loved ones’ prisoner
to guarantee fealty. His
kingdom
was one that few ever entered of free will, and even fewer—if any—had left him and
lived.