Moon Tortured (Sky Brooks Series Book 1) (43 page)

There had to be something I could do. Could Demetrius be reasoned with? What could be exchanged or offered that would be worth him giving up total freedom? The ritual, could it be done without me having to die? Even so, the end result would be vampires unrestricted and stronger than most people who could otherwise regulate them. I dropped my head into my hands, inhaling the dank smell of failure and fear. The house had been quiet, too quiet. Sebastian, Ethan, Josh, Winter, Steven and Gavin were in the office where they had been for hours. Each time I went past the office, there always seemed to be more silence than conversation.

“No! There is no way in hell I am going to let you do that!” There was more concern than fury in Ethan’s escalated voice.

I came down the stairs just in time to see Sebastian’s office door swing open and Ethan storm out, with Josh trailing not far behind as he followed him out of the house. Keeping out of their line of sight, I stayed close to the house watching them. But they were so preoccupied, I doubt they would have noticed me.

Standing nearly a foot from each other, I expected another brawl, something aggressive, tumultuous and violent; but instead, Josh stood motionless, watching his brother, his face shadowed by confliction, longing and doubt.

When he stepped closer, Ethan’s jaw clenched tighter. “I don’t care what you have to say. I am not going to let you do this,” he stated firmly.

Josh’s eyes lowered, his thin veil of lashes didn’t hide his troubled eyes. Ethan looked withdrawn, his gaze lifting periodically to meet Josh’s. Then he turned his back to him focusing on the verdure. “You owe her nothing,” he said softly.

“I don’t. But I owe you. I owe this pack. You know Demetrius won’t stop. If it’s not her, then it will be someone else. He hates you and despises Sebastian. When he succeeds, it won’t be long before he comes after you. What happens if the person he uses is stronger than Skylar and imbues him with strengths and gifts that exceed anything she offers? Then what?’

Ethan turned to face his brother as his hands washed his over his face. When he swallowed, it looked painful as though it was glass that went down. “Don’t do this to protect me. I can take care of myself.”

“If things get so bad that you can’t … ?” Josh asked in a low, sullen voice as his gaze dropped from Ethan’s. His face was distant and morose. When he looked up, his face said it all.
If something happens to you, then what will I do
? “You wanted me to become "blood ally," because this pack is a force most won’t oppose, to ensure my safety.”

Ethan exhaled a long ragged breath, “This is dangerous. You’ve never tried anything at this level before and there is nothing I can do to help you if it fails.” Ethan looked defeated by the harsh truth.

“The favors that we curry, the alliances we have formed, the power we enjoy are all the results of our successes. If we don’t stop this, our failure will be apparent, our weaknesses exposed. The faes trust us and the elves have given us their unyielding respect because of what we have achieved. This one failure will ruin it—will ruin us, and you know it.”

He did. And it was displayed aptly on his face. Yet it seemed to mean nothing if his brother’s safety was the cost. Josh sighed, “You are going to have to let me do this.”

Whatever Josh was about to do must be dangerous because he made no qualms that he could care less what Ethan thought about him using magic and voiced it a time or two. They looked at each other for a long moment as if they were trying to freeze that moment in time. Ethan walked toward his brother and pressed his forehead against his. He inhaled a long ragged breath, “Okay.”

Pulling away abruptly, he headed toward the woods, leaving a trail of clothes as he changed into his wolf, disappearing into the mass of trees.

Josh watched him disappear between the dark florets of trees and greenery. When he turned toward the house, his gaze briefly met mine. Weary and nervous eyes held them for just a millisecond. As he walked closer, I could sense that whatever he was about to do scared him. His heart rate was a series of rapid beats. It was then that I realized emotions had a smell, and intense fear reeked like sewage. I followed him into the house, and when I couldn’t stand it any longer, I grabbed his arm.

Sebastian and Dr. Baker waited for him at the other side of the room. Sebastian’s face was the picture of stoicism, impassiveness. Dr. Baker didn’t possess that skill, tension lines formed around his eyes and lips as concern marked his appearance.

As a blood oath ally of the pack, Josh was just as committed to them as any other member. Josh was standing on a precipice being forced by his sense of obligation to take steps far too close to the edge. I felt the need to save him before he plummeted too far. I kept a firm grasp on his wrist. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Nothing big, just magic” he lied breezily. I kept my hold on him my fingers pressing into him probably painfully, cuffing him to me.

Josh pulled away, “Don’t,” he commanded before walking briskly toward the infirmary. I fell in step with him, “I’m going with you,” I insisted.

Josh stopped short and pierced me with a stern look. “No.”

“I can help if you need it,” I persisted.

He looked frustrated as he ran his hand through his hair. It was already so disheveled and messy it didn’t really change his look. It was the same look he had the day I met him except then he was confident and relaxed; now, he was concerned and tense.

Frowning, he started to walk away again, “You will just be in the way.”

“In the way of what? You’ve exposed me to magic before, very strong and dangerous magic. Why not now? I’m not afraid. I’ll be there to help if you need it,” I stated firmly.

“Skylar, we don’t have time for this,” Dr. Baker finally interjected from behind me.

“Fine. Then we shouldn’t waste any more of it on an argument you won’t win. I’m going with you. Enough said,” I stated firmly and I started walking behind him.

“Skylar, stop it. You can’t help with this,” Josh admitted, exasperated. Nervousness and fear overshadowed his face, and it was absolutely heartbreaking to look at him.

Before I could respond, Sebastian grabbed me from behind, bundling me into a bear hug and dragging me away.

“Let me go!” As I fought against him, the grip tightened making it painfully hard to breathe as he took me down a flight of stairs. I yelled a slew of threats, colored by enough swear words, that in any other situation, I would have washed my own mouth out with soap. I heard the squeal of a door opening just before he tossed me onto the floor of the cage.

“Sebastian, let me out. Now!” I demanded, rattling the cage. He barely looked in my direction; my anger was inconsequential.

“I’ll let you out when you manage to gain some remnant of control, young wolf because right now your behavior is unacceptable,” he said with a voice so calm and level it was infuriating.

“Oh screw you! I can’t believe you are going to let Josh—“

“Calm down and shut your mouth.” His voice was extremely composed but his eyes were ablaze, his fury barely under control as he stepped closer to the cage. I snapped my mouth close. I wasn’t calm by any stretch, but I had a feeling that if I didn’t get my anger under control, if I lived to next week, I was probably going to still be in this cage.

I walked over to the corner and sat, pulling my knees to my chest and closing my eyes. The gentle sounds of his breathing as he stood in front of the cage served as a reasonable distraction. “If you tell Josh to wait, he will,” I stated softly. Beyond my understanding, they followed his commands blindly. If he asked them to quack like a duck while standing on one leg, I doubt there would be many who would refuse.

He shook his head. “But I won’t,” he stated firmly as he started up the stairs.

“What if I told you I could fix this?” I asked as I walked to the bars, gripping them firmly. I pressed my face against the cool metal, it felt good against my flushed skin.

He looked sorely disinterested when he turned around. “I would say you are as delusional as you are impulsive.” I clenched down hard on my teeth trying to choose my words carefully; although, all I wanted to do was yell at him.

“But I can fix things,” I admitted as I thought of the Trincet discreetly hidden in my computer bag.

Staring back at me were dark-brown eyes that seemed harsh rather than inquisitive. I was telling him I could fix things and he looked about as interested as watching a kitten play with yarn. It was enraging. “Even if the Trincet were still in the room and I allowed you to use it, your death wouldn’t serve any other purpose but to relieve you of your guilt. The number of losses would be greater because Demetrius would start a new search, destroying anything in his path until he found your replacement.”

I dropped my eyes to the ground. “I can’t believe you are willing to sacrifice Josh for this. You protected my life adamantly with very little reason; doesn’t he deserve the same? You can’t let him risk his life for this. In the long run, your pack will suffer greatly. Are you prepared to live with that? I’m not?”

He came back down the stairs and stood in front of me, staring at me with cold tungsten eyes, “We all bare burdens that at the time we feel we won’t be able to handle. You live long enough, you learn to deal with many things.”

The guilt was becoming an unbearable weight, and I was collapsing under it. I wiped away a stream of tears that ran down my cheek and cursed them when they wouldn’t stop.

He stared at me with discountenance, “The world you have lived in has been so small and sheltered that you can’t grasp the significance of things. This is bigger than you. Even if you weren’t involved, we would have done whatever necessary to stop Demetrius from completing the ritual. You take the time in here to get over yourself.”

He was up the stairs with such smooth graceful strides, it was hard to believe that just moments ago he was standing in front of the cage, chastising me.

I had been in the cage for about three hours when Winter came down the stairs, a smirk on her face. “Maybe this is where you should have started off.”

She went on to amuse herself by listing what she considered the many stupid things I’d done over the past weeks that should have landed me in here. She stopped suddenly. Her ears pricked, listening keenly to the sounds upstairs.

“Damn,” she stated under her breath through gritted teeth. She quickly punched in the code to the cage and opened it. Halfway up the stairs, she yelled down to me, “Don’t close the door,” she instructed. “When you have a disgruntled, volatile were-animal on your hands, the last thing you want to have to do is fumble codes.”

Upstairs, a short blond that was too curvy to be were-anything, stood at the door. The scorn etched on her round supple face made her would-be soft features hard as she followed Dr. Baker into the infirmary, holding her bag closer to her. Winter stared at her until she disappeared behind the double door; then she closed her eyes and bit down on her lips hard.

“What’s wrong?”

She cursed. “Pala’s here. This can’t be good,” she admitted herself. Winter looked uneasy as she continued to look at the empty space where Pala once stood. “He’s going to bring Ethos into this,” she whispered; her face was stringent with concern.

“What does this mean?”

Too focused on her thoughts, she didn’t seem to hear me. “Winter.” She shook her head, directing her attention to me.

“Ethos is very powerful and the very essence of dark magic. Some say he is a warlock, others a demon; no one really knows. He’s the strongest source of dark magic, which is not of the world we live in. Well, not in the sense that you would think. There are people who practice its art, and are allowed to borrow it. In return, they are in servitude to him. Pala is a servant of Ethos. Josh is going to use her as a conduit, binding himself to her in order to use dark magic to find the gem. She will be in control the whole time. Anyone who is in servitude to Ethos should never be given control of your body and mind.” She spoke swiftly, her attention focused on the double doors dividing us and whatever Pala and Josh were doing.

I sucked in a breath, recalling what took place when I was used as a conduit with Caleb.

“Why would he do something like that?”

“This wasn’t his initial plan; obviously plan A failed, so he moved on to plan B,” she stated curtly. She rubbed her hands over her face and sighed. “We are not prepared for plan B.” If plan A left that fear-stricken look on Josh’s face, then how bad was plan B?