Awakened (23 page)

“When we get on the boat, go. No turning back, no waiting for anyone—”

“Wait, whoa!” I choked out. Speaking was soon to be impossible, and my chest was seconds
from exploding into a fireball of pain. I couldn’t get enough oxygen in my lungs,
and my knees were about to lock up on me. All of that aside, nothing hurt worse than
realizing that if we got to the boat before Kale did, we would have to leave him on
the island.

As I came to a halt, my brain protested. It was still in survival mode, but I wasn’t
leaving Kale or Ana on the island.

Alex skidded to a halt a few steps ahead of me. “Don’t do this, Ella. It’s what we
all agreed to—your safety first,” Alex pled breathlessly. I almost went with him as
he held out his hand and inched towards the freedom I’d dreamt about since I’d been
held on the island.

“You should have known that I wouldn’t leave him here, Alex!” I could still hear Ana
and the two Chorý fighting, though I couldn’t see them, but I couldn’t help myself.
“You had to know that, Alex, and I can’t believe you weren’t going to tell me sooner.”
I turned around to head back, but a painful grip on my arm stopped me dead in my tracks.

Alex was breathing hard, his faced twisted in anger.

“I refuse to let you go back,” Alex said, and my eyes widened. “I will go back, if
it means you get on that boat.” He yanked me forward, and I was too shocked to pull
away at first. He pulled me over a few roots and tightened his grip as I almost tumbled
to the ground. Seeing Alex this angry was shocking, but I couldn’t leave Kale—I wouldn’t.

“Alex,” I gasped as I tried to pull away from him. “Maybe I can help. There has to
be something I can do!”

“Don’t be stupid!” Alex pulled me so hard that I screamed out in pain.

“No, by all means be stupid and come back with me.”

We both turned to see the large Chorý leaning against the tree. His beady eyes trained
on Alex as Alex pulled out his dagger and rooted himself in front of me.

“Now, now, little human,” he drawled. “That is an awfully big knife ya got there.
Why don’t you put it down so you don’t poke your eye out?” the Chorý taunted with
an evil grin.

“Back. Off,” was Alex’s hard reply. I peeked over his shoulder for Ana; Alex nudged
me back, pushing me against a tree. I knew he wanted me to run, but there was no way
that I was leaving Alex alone with that Chorý.

“Hmm. Now, son, let me do you a favor.” The Chorý slowly moved away from the tree
and stood up straight. His leaning position had hid the fact that he was almost seven
feet tall. Alex was not prepared for the Chorý’s skills, either. “Instead of taking
you back to my master, how about I sink my teeth into the thick vein on the side of
your neck and end you painlessly?”

“What in the—” Alex balked. He turned to me for a second, and confusion and nervousness
in his eyes. Alex had no clue what he was dealing with, and it was my fault. I should
have told him before I was taken.

“Oh, please. Don’t tell me you don’t know a Chorý when you see one, boy. I know the
Council has trained you better than that.” The Chorý stifled laughter.

“Dude, are trying to say that you’re a freaking vampire?” Alex asked in amazement.
“Ella, you need to run now. This dude is not only immortal; he is
insane
.” He spat the last word with utter disgust.

I needed to warn him about the can of worms that he was about to open. “Alex—”

The Chorý glanced at me and growled. “Do not run, little girl.”

“Ella, I said—”

The Chorý flashed his very vampire canines.

I was shocked, too. Kale never extended his teeth, and though Ana and Darke both kept
their teeth extended, they never bared them at me as a warning or anything else. I’d
read in books and seen in movies how a vampire bite could feel good, but there was
nothing that was going to convince me that having the long sharp teeth buried in the
crook of my neck would ever feel like anything other than excruciating pain.

“What was that you said?”

“What the hell are you?” Alex asked. I moved away from the tree that I had been hugging
and placed my arms around Alex’s waist. He placed his free hand on my arm and squeezed.

“Touching, but that proposition is still on the table. When Laurent gets you, he will
show you no mercy. Me, on the other hand.” The Chorý pointed to his teeth. “I promise
to make it feel good to the very last drop.”

“What is going on in this world?” Alex whispered as the Chorý crouched, eying Alex
like prey. It’s silly to say that a moment moves in slow motion, but there was no
other way to explain what happened next. I could see every muscle coil and tense in
the Chorý’s body and as he leaped into the air, seeming to remain motionless for a
moment.

I heard his response to Alex’s question: “Evolution.”

Servitto

“Oh, brother, where art thou?” Tamsin and I rushed the room, hoping to find Ella.

Darke emerged from the bathroom, and I was still amazed at how different he now looked
as Chorý. He and I had different mothers, though we shared our father.

“How I have missed you, brother,” Darke admitted sincerely.

“Must we always meet on such hostile terms?” I asked.

Tamsin pulled her steel blade from her side and stood closer to me.

Darke smiled. “You look as lovely and delicate as a flower.”

“Tell it to my blade, leech.”

“Enough,” I commanded. The day I had dreaded since I’d learned of my brother’s infection
and dealings with Laurent. “Brother, what have you done with her?’

“I’ve sent her to the Council,” he answered.

What?
Tamsin and I shared a glance.
How?

“¿
Cómo así,
Raúl?” I asked in the language we spoke together as children, using the name that
our father had been so proud to give him.

“I no longer go by that name, and you know it,” he said through gritted teeth.

“You are Raúl de Santos, and I have never stopped seeing you as that man.” I moved
closer, only to stop when he pulled the matching dagger from his belt.

Darke frowned with regret. “No, I am Darkness and Death. I am Chorý, with the blood
of a Death Bringer. Brother, my hands be so soiled, they remain red even when they
have seen no blood for days. I sent your girl to the Council, along with the only
reason I have lasted this long in this wretched life.”

Tamsin raised her blade, but I raised my hand to stop her from moving further. My
brother had never a man to explain his actions, but if he wanted to start I would
listen.

“You say you have sent her to us, and now you raise a blade to the very ones that
will protect her. Are you mad, or is this some ploy you have created?”

Unshed tears filled Darke’s eyes as his sword fell to the floor. He looked to Tamsin
and beckoned her closer. He pointed to his heart and whispered, “Place the tip here,
push, and twist.”

“No!” I interjected as Tamsin moved forward to fulfill my brother’s request. I’d never
hesitated in the field—killing Chorý was my job, even if the infected had once been
someone I knew and loved—but as my brother stared up at me, I wondered for the first
time if I could could forgive him for what he’d become.

“And why not? Should I suffer more? Is that what you wish, that I live and remember
each life that I have taken for him?” Darke cried. “Has my suffering no gone on long
enough?”

“And if I offered another solution?”

Darke laughed, a bitter bark far from the laughter of happiness he and I shared as
children. “Should I pray to your leader for forgiveness? Will he cleanse my hands
as death will?”

If forgiveness was what my brother sought through death, he was a fool. I could offer
no absolution for sins he’d committed after he’d left home, but I could forgive him
for leaving me to fix his mistakes. I could forgive him for the pain and suffering
he’d caused our family in Spain all those years ago.

“Death would be the ultimate sacrifice, a way to cleanse the blood from your hands
and be at peace for all that you have done,” Tamsin whispered. “I am willing to grant
you that.” “You see, brother?” He pointed to Tamsin and smiled. “After my won heart,
she is.”

“Yes I am.” Tamsin responded with a chilling smile. Darke laughed at her remark. I
was sure that he understood that Tamsin would rip his heart out if given the chance
and that seemed to please him.

Darke fell to his knees and removed his shirt. Scars from lashings and cuts decorated
his body. Tattoos of a long dead language lined each of his ribs in beautiful winding
and looping script.

“Are you sure of this brother?” I asked.

“It’s the only thing I have left to give. Will you protect the one I have sent with
your girl?”

Tamsin moved closer to Darke, and she ran her finger across his lowest rib and read
the scripture. “
Dagna bea mea tome
.” Darke closed his eyes and recited the words with her. “
Dagna bea mea soeuol. Verana mea culpa.
” Tamsin stepped back and looked to me. “I give you my life; I give you my soul, while
I take the shame,” she said in English. “His life is not mine to take.” Seeming no
longer eager to kill him, she headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” I called to her.

“To find Laurent. That scripture on his chest is the prayer you must repeat as you
push the blade through his chest, in order to release his soul and end his suffering.
It’s from the old writings. His soul is trapped.” Tamsin shook her head and left the
room.

I turned to my brother, where he still kneeled. I saw him, not as the monster he’d
become, but as the boy he once was.

“Hurry. They may need your help with Laurent.” I picked up the blade that he’d dropped
and placed it to his chest. Even as a High Guardian in the Council, I’d never been
asked to complete a task that I questioned, but that night, as I placed the blade
to my brother’s heart, I wondered… If he were capable of asking for forgiveness, could
I be capable of granting it? “I am sorry that I failed you, brother. I will not fail
the one you sent with the Arc.”

Alex

The Chorý landed on us knocking both Ella and me into the tree behind us and then
onto the ground. I fell on Ella, but I caught my weight on my elbows.

It wasn’t the pain that had me panicking. Ella’s choked scream sent me into a frenzy
as I desperately tried to unlock the hold the creature had on me. She was struggling
to breathe with the two of us on top of her. My dagger, knocked from my hand as we
fell, lay not even a foot away from us, and I couldn’t grab it. I needed both hands
to keep his mouth away from my neck.

As I tried to wriggle closer to the dagger, I could feel Ella struggling beneath me.
I anchored myself with my feet and pushed my hips forward, to both relieve Ella of
our combined weight and keep the creature’s teeth away from my neck.

“Hold still, boy.” He growled, his teeth bared. He moved his face closer to me while
pinning my arms to the ground, which pinned Ella beneath me. She pushed deeper into
the snow, and I could feel the small puffs of air as she tried to take deeper breaths.

If the creature killed me now, Ella would be trapped beneath me, unable to run away.
He’d take her back, and I would have failed her—again. I didn’t know where Ana was,
or if Jace and the team had even survived their mission.

“Please, don’t,” Ella whispered from beneath me. I wasn’t one to cry, but my eyes
burned as tears formed in them.

Then it hit me. So many times, I had told Ella what to do if she was ever attacked
by a guy and needed to disable him long enough to get away. As I lifted my left knee
and he shifted to the left to keep control, I realized that whether or not this thing
was human, a knee to the family jewels would still bring him to his knees.

I angled my right leg at the awkward angle necessary and pushed it forward as I heard
the snapping of twigs and the pounding of feet somewhere to the left. I hoped with
every fiber of my being that it was Kale and the team, not more of these freaks. The
holler from the thing on top of me was my queue to pivot and thrust him off of me.
He didn’t fly far, but he moved far enough.

I rolled us to the side and helped her up. “Run, Ella!” We both stood on wobbly legs
and managed to get a few steps away from the creature that was moaning and writhing
in the dirty snow. I shoved Ella roughly, using my strength to demand that she follow
my orders, but she stumbled.

When she caught her footing, she stood, frozen, holding her bloody lip where my head
had slammed into it. I winced at the pain she must have felt as the blood dripped
from her mouth to her shirt. I marveled at how my body felt light and loose, how easy
it was for me to push that creature off of me, how I had felt pain but didn’t register
it. What was going on with my body? I honestly didn’t have time to stand around and
wonder about it, or wonder about the fact that my body felt as though it wasn’t my
own.

“Go—” The pain of hair and flesh being ripped from my scalp reminded me that I should
have pushed Ella harder, been more demanding, or at least slapped her out of that
frozen state.

As the creature yanked my neck so far to the side that I felt as though my neck would
snap—as he placed his large hand around my neck, making me gasp for air—I could do
nothing but stare at Ella and her red wind burned face.

The creature bit into my neck. I jerked once, twice from the pain, and then I couldn’t
move. I couldn’t fight back, even though I begged my arms or legs to move. They did
nothing, as if they were no longer mine to control. I felt the warm spray of blood
as the creature released my neck and laughed.

“Ah, adrenaline. Adds a sweet and tangy taste to the blood,” he whispered in my ear.
I fought to stay awake. My body was cold, and my limbs felt like dead weight hanging
from my body. My vision flickered. As his teeth pierced my neck again, I knew that
I wouldn’t survive the night. That someone would have to tell my parents that I had
gone missing too.