Mark of Betrayal (57 page)

“
Do you think I want to! Do you think I want to betray my nephew, who I loved, by fornicating with his wife!” He turned away, brushing a hand across his brow. “The child of the prophecy is only that if she is your firstborn. And those scriptures, whether you believe it or not, Ara, say it must be conceived with a firstborn son of Knight.”

“
Why does it matter to you so much—so much that you’d be willing to watch me hurt like this?”

“
I want to be free. I told you this.”

I looked away from his wrists; from the way he presented the clear veins as if they were shackles. “And you think you're the only one who can give me that child?”

“
Amara, you know how I feel about you.” He moved in and grabbed the tops of my arms. “You are one of my dearest friends, and if Jason could father the child, I’d have brought him here already. He loves you, and you two, in David's absence, should be together. But your child needs to be with me.”

I shook my head, sniffling, inching away from him. “Arthur. I can't. I can't ever do that with you. I don't love you that way and—”

“
I'm not asking you to love me, Amara—merely…” He looked away, shaking his head. “Merely give me one night with you.”

My lips went tight. “It would make me sick.”

His shoulders dropped; he looked away.

“
I'm sorry, Arthur, you know I love you.” I touched my chest. “You know I do, but I can't be with you that way. I never will.”

“
Then all hope is lost.”

I took another step back, nodding to the ground. “Then I guess it is.”

Arthur, with a hand to his heart, bowed and walked past me at human pace; his shoulders stiff, his head held high.

“
I'm so sorry, Arthur,” I whispered to myself.

Morgaine came up the steps outside then and practically skipped into the Great Hall. “Morg?”

“
Oh, hey, what’s up?” she said, stopping beside me, the smell of summer grass and sunshine gently wafting off her skin with each pulse of her heart.

“
Where did you put Jason?”

Her shoulders dropped. “I'm not telling. Mike doesn’t want you near him.”

“
Morg. I don't care.” I angled my head to the ground, the sound of impatience festering in my tone. “Mike is not the queen. I am. Now, where is Jason?”

“
He’s in the west wing,” she huffed the words out.

“
Thanks. Second floor, I imagine?”

“
Yes.” She followed me as I headed up the stairs. “Mike tried to put him in the east wing—as far away from you as he could get, but we’ve run out of rooms. Jason got the last one in the entire manor.”

“
What number’s his room?”

“
It’s the one at the very end—no number on the door.”

“
Thanks,” I said and walked a little faster—my silent indication for her not to follow. She dropped back, obviously ‘sensing’ it, and by the time I stepped onto the landing of the second floor, she was completely gone. The only other people around were Ryder, quietly taking over from Quaid’s shift, a maid cleaning the windows with lemon-scented Windex, and Nathan, charging toward me at full human speed.

He nearly bowled me over, glancing back as he passed. “Ara! D’you hear?”

“
Hear what?”

“
Jason’s alive,” he called over his shoulder.

“
Yeah.” I smiled to myself. “I heard.”

I followed Nathan down the softly-lit corridor, him running, me walking gracefully, all the way to the room at the very end, and stopped beside him with my arms around my waist.

“
I just can’t believe it,” he said, then rapped on the door four or five times. When it opened, he laughed, charging Jason. “Knight!”

“
Nate!”

There was a moment of back patting and jumping around, before the boys stood back from each other, smiling.

“
What’s the deal, man?” Nathan said. “Are you a zombie or something—coming back from the dead?”

Jason laughed, slipping his shirt over his head, pulling it down past his golden abs. “I'm not back from the dead, Nate.”

“
Yeah, so what’s the deal? Why’d you stage your death?”

“
King was after me.”

“
Dude. Not cool. Wah’d ya do?”

Jason looked at me and smiled. “I’ve got some mad skills and a blood oath issue that would’ve made me his super slave if he knew I was alive.”

Nathan rocked back, running a hand over his shaved head. “Well, I'm glad you’re alive. How ya been?”

“
Uh, okay, I suppose.” I could tell it was a lie.

“
So, your bro wouldn’t happen to be alive, too, would he?”

“
Nah, man. He’s six feet under.”

“
Drat.”

“
Why?”

“
Miss him.” Nathan wandered over and sat himself down on Jason’s bed.

“
We all miss him,” I said and stood with my arms folded, leaning on the wall by the open door. This room was exactly the same as Arthur’s, but smaller, with only one window. I could see why it was the last room left.

“
Yeah, it’s just…I haven't seen him since he dug me up,” Nate said. “I never really got to thank him.”

“
Dug you up?” I asked.

Nathan looked back at me then at Jason.

“
What’d you mean, Nathe?” Jason said.

“
This is spoken under the brotherhood code, right?”

Jason nodded, sitting next to Nathan; he had a real human look to him when he smirked that way, as if he already knew what Nathan was going to say. “Yeah. No probs, Nathe. Ara won't say anything, either.”

“’
Kay. Well, I got sick, right—doc told me I had cancer. ‘Cept, we didn’t wanna tell anyone, you know. Didn't want the pity.”

“
Sorry to hear that,” Jason said.

“
Yeah, it was all cool. They gave me six months to live. So, David comes to me, right, tells me he’s a vampire—says he thinks he figured out how to turn a human. He said he wanted to turn his girlfriend but wasn't sure if it’d work—said if it didn't, she’d die.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, that’s true. So, what, he wanted to test on you?”

“
Since I was dying anyway, we figured it was a good way to go.” He laid back on his elbow, smiling. “We got some beers, got wasted, and he did his thing. Next thing I know, I'm being hauled away in some pine box.”

I covered my mouth. “So you got buried?”

He looked back at me. “Yeah. But David warned me I would. Said he’d come for me before my phone battery ran out.”

“
So, he knew you were alive? That whole time—even at your funeral?”

“
Yeah.” Nate laughed. “When they closed the casket, he walked up and made some smart-ass joke—had me pissing myself laughing. I couldn’t hold it.” He looked at Jason. “I had to lay in my own waste for about ten hours—playin’ Tetris.”

Jason covered his mouth with a tight fist, laughing. “Good thing you didn't get your mouth sewn up by the mortician.”

“
Nah, David said he took care of all that—said I went into a coma for a bit first, so he had a doctor diagnose me with some rare virus, then forged himself a degree and was the ‘on-call’ guy for the funeral home the day I ‘died’.”

“
What about your mum?” I stomped my foot down. “She cried for you!”

Nathan stood and faced me. “I know. But…I was dying. There was nothing we could do about that, and I couldn’t stay—how would I justify my sudden cure and lack of heartbeat?”

“
Not to mention, the Set wouldn’t allow it,” Jason added.

I knew that—I knew all of it, but somehow it just didn't make it okay.

“
David left her some money,” Nathan said. “I didn't have none to give, so he paid all the expenses, you know, made an anonymous donation at that benefit concert.” He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “I miss her, Ara, you know. I didn't wanna leave her, but I check in on her all the time.”

I nodded. “I know. I'm sorry, Nathan. Of course you didn't want this. I just…I'm just still struggling to deal with all this, too.”

He appeared beside me at vamp speed and touched my shoulder. “I know how you feel.”

I smiled at him.

“
Hey, Nate.” Jason stood. “Can you give us a minute?”

“
Yeah.” He dropped his hand from my arm and shook Jason's. “Good to see you again, man.”

“
You too, bro.” Jason gave a one-armed hug and walked him to the door, closing it behind him.

“
I didn't know you knew Nathan.” I dropped my hands to my hips.

“
Yeah. He’s the only one of Em’s friends I ever met. They hung out quite a bit.”

“
Cool.” I nodded. “So, David turned him. Did you know that?”

He shook his head, coming to stand right in front of me. “Nah. But I kinda suspected it.”

“
But…he told me it wasn't him.”

“
Actually, I said I didn't
kill
Nathan.”

I looked up to the new voice in the room. “David!”

“
Whoa, that’s happiness to see me,” he said, wrapping his arms around my head and shoulders as I launched into his loving embrace.

“
What are you doing here?”

“
Got a call—heard my brother was still alive.”

I pulled back from the hug and looked at the two boys. “Who told you?”

“
Mike,” they both said, and laughed.

“
When did you get here?”

He looked at his watch. “’Bout twenty minutes ago.”

“
So…” I bit my lip, looking from one face to the other. “Are you guys okay? I mean, there weren’t any fists flying or—”

“
No,” David said. “We’re all good.”

“
Yeah, death has a funny way of putting things into perspective,” Jason added.

“
So, are you back?” I hugged David's arm, looking up at him. “I mean, now Jason’s here, won't they try to say the prophecy child can be with him?”

“
No.”

“
Why?”

“
Because, despite him being of my blood—”

“
An exact copy of your blood,” I challenged.

“
It doesn't matter, Ara. He is not the firstborn—nothing can change that.”

“
I don't think the people will care. I think you should just come home and we’ll face Drake together if he wants to come get us.”

David groaned and walked away.

“
David, please. Come on. We’re strong now. He can come here, he can fight us—he won't win.”

“
And what makes you so sure, Ara?” David spun around from where he stood facing the window. “You don't know what he’s capable of, and you don't even know what you’re capable of. Mike fills me in, my love—he tells me everything to do with you, and I know you can't use that static light as well as you’d like to think. We can't put all our cards in that basket.”

“
But we’re putting them in the prophecy child one? We’re putting them all there when you’re never even here to create a child, we put them there when we don't even know if she can be conceived.”

David rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Ara, just stop it.”

“
No! I won't. I'm tired of this. I…I have all these questions, David, and I never ask. I never question what you do, because I trust you. But I don't think I should anymore. Either you're incredibly dumb or you're incredibly naïve and you just believe everything Morg tells you or…” I paused. “Or you're keeping things from me.”

“
And what if I was, Ara?” He stepped up and grabbed my arm. “What if I am keeping things from you—would you leave it alone? Would you back down and let me do my thing?” he asked, his eyes shifting to each of mine.

“
Yes.”

He dropped my arm with a sigh. “Look, I can't do this anymore, either, Ara. I don't want to be away from you. I don't want to lie to you. But I have to.”

“
Why?”

“
Because you won't like the truth.”

“
What if I promise to at least go along with it—even if it’s bad?”

He shook his head then looked over at Jason. “There are things…”

I stood very still, like a doe that spotted a hunter, waiting for him to continue.

David sighed and sat on the bed, his head in his hands. “Things that we’ve discovered about certain people here, Ara. We may have more than one traitor in our midst, and we just don't know who.”

“
What’s that got to do with anything?”

He half looked up at me. “My being away is for reasons I cannot share, right now.”

“
Because of the traitors?”

“
Because they may hurt you to get information I have.”

“
Well, won't they do that anyway?”

“
Not while they believe you to be this naïve, easily-led young girl. If I shared even half my knowledge with you, you wouldn't be the same.”

“
What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“
Nothing,” he said, looking back down at the ground. “All I can tell you right now is that I went through Arthur’s room at Elysium. I found notes on the prophecy. Turns out he knew about it long before the vampire council came to find you. And it wasn’t common knowledge. I was ordered to kill a Lilithian upon my entrance to the council, and even I wasn't told about this prophecy.”