The Relentless Warrior (30 page)

“What the hell was that?” O whispered.

Sylvia and I had no answers so we said nothing.

Sounds filled the eerie silence the explosion left behind. Sounds form everywhere
and too many to be distinguishable. Men’s voices, marching feet, weapons firing, doors
crashing open, furniture splintering apart… there was noise everywhere from every
direction and the emptiness in the air that had seemed to inflate after everything
blew to bits, was suddenly filled with angry, purposeful noise that just did not make
sense to me.

“We’re being invaded,” Sylvia whispered, clearly understanding this better than us.

O looked down at her nurse’s scrubs and blanched. That was my sister for you. We were
being invaded by who knew what, although I had a pretty good guess, and she was worried
about what she was wearing.

“I’m not even wearing a bra,” she whispered frantically at me.

I would have laughed if I hadn’t been paralyzed by panic.

“Go put one on,” Sylvia whispered at her, yanking her from the bed. Ophelia stumbled
to the side, but caught herself. “Oh, sorry,” the doctor apologized weakly. “We just
have to hurry.”

Spurred into motion because I knew she was right, I jumped from the bed and ran to
the closet. I pulled out some necessary clothes for O… undergarments, socks, shoes.
And then I helped stuff her into them. We left her maroon pants on, but changed her
uniformish top for a gray long-sleeve t-shirt. I grabbed a hoodie, just in case we
were forced outside and O’s Magic couldn’t activate to keep her warm.

Activate… was that the right word?

Didn’t matter.

I tossed her an elastic hair tie and she quickly wrapped up her longer blonde hair
into a knot on the top of her head. Our hair color matched exactly, but I kept my
chin length and she had wisely let hers grow to her shoulders.

I would do anything for a ponytail in this moment.

“Come on,” Sylvia whispered harshly at us. She was already standing by the door with
a gun in her hands and another stretched out to me. “Do you know how to use this?”

I nodded. “Where did you get it?”

She kicked at a table sitting near the door. “There are some of these in every room
if you know where to look.”

“What’s the plan?” I checked the chamber for ammo and then clicked off the safety
like Sebastian taught me.

“Who are you?” Ophelia gaped at me.

I ignored her and said, “Babe, if your blood starts to tingle, or, boil, you should
probably just go with it.”

“Go with it?” she squeaked with new terror in her eyes.

“Trust me, I swear you’ll be fine. You just have to… embrace the change.” I patted
her shoulder and turned back to Sylvia.

“We have to get to Lilly,” Sylvia decided quickly. “Talbott will be there, I’m sure
of it. Maybe some others, but I have to make sure she’s all right. Her condition was
volatile in the best of circumstances today. This is not good for her.”

“Lead the way.” I put my hand on the door and counted down under my breath from three.

I opened the door with as little sound as I could manage and then Sylvia stuck her
head out into the hallway. It was clear so we stepped out of the room and into the
dim, archaic stone hallway.

Sylvia glanced at me with pleading eyes and said, “Please remember that I’m human.”
I went to assure her and she held up a hand. “Believe me, it’s easy to forget. Just
remember I cannot get shot. I can hardly operate on myself and the more likely scenario
is that I will die.”

I snapped my mouth shut at such a categorical response. “Alright,” I finally told
her.

“Please remember that I’m human, too,” O squeaked.

Neither Sylvia nor I looked at her. This wasn’t exactly the place to have a call-to-your-new-destiny
speech.

We moved stealthily down the hallway. I compartmentalized my fear and anxiety and
imagined myself in a spy movie. Probably not the best tactic, but it helped me stay
focused for now.

At the staircase, we headed up instead of down. In soft tones, Sylvia explained that
the castle connected on the top floor and we would be able to get to Lilly’s wing
through the upstairs corridor.

It worked. Whether they, whoever
they
were, didn’t know about the top floor passageways or they hadn’t infiltrated this
far into the castle yet, we met nobody on the way.

On the other side of the huge castle was a staircase that would lead us down into
a different tower. There were more stairs leading up to the very top of the castle,
but we’d traveled a level beneath where the four different towers raised above the
rest of the building.

Sylvia knew her way around and we followed her easily. I checked back on Ophelia a
few times, to make sure she wasn’t out of her mind with exhaustion. Her Magic must
have kicked in though because she kept up with ease and didn’t seem to be struggling.

Down on this side, there were more of those vague sounds from the mystery invaders.
The distant popping of guns, heavy feet running through the castle… there was a man
shouting orders at the tops of his lungs (five guesses to who that was) and screaming
at everyone and everything.

A thousand different thoughts swam through my head, but they were too muddled to make
sense of. Jericho was in more than half of them, but I couldn’t decide if it was because
I wanted him here to protect me or if I was grateful he had escaped the danger here.

Sylvia slowed down and took a quick glance around the corner. When she looked back
at us, her face was white and she pressed her back against the cold stone wall indicating
there were people around the corner.

And probably not friendly people.

She held up three fingers at us and then pretended to shoot her gun making a soft
“pew, pew” noise out of her mouth.

So, there were three bad guys that we were supposed to shoot? Hopefully?

She took a deep breath, mouthed one, two, three and then we leapt from around the
corner and started shooting. I hit one guy in the leg and really, truly hoped he was
a bad guy since I didn’t take any time to look him over.

Ophelia hung back while Sylvia cleaned up the other two.

They seemed to be guarding a door that I had to assume led to Lilly and Talbott.

The guns all had silencers, but I didn’t trust the halls to be empty. Sylvia didn’t
seem to either and opened a room across the hall where we dragged the three unconscious
bodies. The men were huge, out cold and smelled horrible.

I
hated
the way they smelled. The rotten, sickly scent tingled the insides of my nostrils
and dive-bombed straight into the pit of my stomach where it mixed things up a bit
violently. Then the flashbacks came, quick and haunting, of all my time spent back
in that filthy lab.

I pushed the horrifying memories away and focused on using my Magic to give me enough
strength to drag the impossibly heavy man into the dark room.

Just as we finished unloading the last body into an awkward pile just inside the door,
Eden and Kiran appeared in the hallway behind us.

Eden’s hair was wild and floated around her body like a black flame- alive, wild and
on the verge of destruction. Kiran had removed his crown but looked as kingly as ever
with a fierce, brutal expression and a sword at the ready. But they both relaxed when
Sylvia walked out of the room.
 

“Thank God, Syl. Have you checked on Lilly?” Eden ran up to Sylvia and threw her arms
around her.

“We were just about to.” Without hesitating for a moment longer, Kiran shouldered
open the door to Lilly’s room and we all piled in.

Talbott sat on the bed with Lilly’s pale, sleeping head on one leg, while a dangerous
looking short sword rested on the other. I felt his Magic ease just a bit when he
saw his intruders were friends, not enemies.

“I will not let him take her again,” Talbott snarled. His chocolate eyes had darkened
with a storm of fury that I was afraid of, even though we were technically on the
same team. He looked like a Greek god, chiseled from stone but with the power to destroy
earth with a single, angry breath.

“We’re not going to let him take anyone, Mate,” Kiran promised him.

“We’re leaving,” Eden added. “Now.” Looking frantically around the room, she seemed
to be mumbling to herself. “We need to get to the tunnel. It’s still dry, isn’t it?”

“Do you honestly think I would let them fill it in after all your hard work?” Kiran
grinned at her.

“Shut up,” she groaned.

I wondered what they were talking about since even Talbott’s lips twitched in a slight
smile. But in the next second he sheathed his weapon and scooped Lilly into his arms.

“Avalon and Mimi?” Sylvia asked. She swiped a few things off a table near the head
of the bed and shoved them into her deep pockets. I assumed were medical necessities
for Lilly.

“I can’t get him through our connection,” Eden growled. “Radio silence or something.
They were on their way to find Angelica when we parted ways.”

We followed Kiran and Eden out into the hallway again, checking every direction for
more of Terletov’s henchmen. The corridors were empty though and so O and I followed
them down the stairs, moving as quickly as we could to keep up.

 
“Is there a contingency plan?” Sylvia pressed

“No,” Kiran shook his head vehemently. “Maybe… I’m not sure. The Citadel is supposed
to be impenetrable.”

“Do you want to go by the courtroom or take the dungeons?” Talbott asked once we reached
the main floor.

The Throne room was somewhere to our right, and on our left the hallway stretched
out to the front entrance of the ancient building.

“Where is everybody?” Eden asked in hushed whisper.

“Waiting for you,” Dmitri Terletov’s satisfied call drifted down the hallway. As if
on cue he stepped out of the Throne room and waved a melodramatic hand for us to enter.

I shook my head. “No, thank you.”

His cold eyes narrowed but a cruel smile warped his mouth in a way that was completely
unnatural. “Well, you don’t all have to join me,” he told us without trying to hide
his amusement. “I would just like you, my Olivia. Oh, and that darling Queen of yours.”
His smile widened and I could feel the tension radiating off every single one of us.
Nothing could make us go in that room. Well, nothing until he tilted his head and
one of his armed men stepped into the hallway holding Amelia at gunpoint. “Oh, what
the hell, why don’t you all just join me. I’m sure I can find something to do with
a couple Kings and their servants.”

“Fine,” Eden sighed dramatically. “Thank you for the invitation.” She began marching
toward Terletov with a stubborn nose lifted in the air.

Kiran muffled a laugh and I whipped my head around unable to find this remotely humorous.

“Don’t worry,” Kiran whispered. He stepped closer to O and me and waggled his eyebrows.
“It never works out for them when they piss Eden off.”

“So, she’ll get us out of this?” My voice filled with quiet desperation relaxed a
little at his unspoken promise.

“More likely she’ll blow us all up.” Kiran grinned and glided after her.

I gaped after him because he did not seem at all concerned. Talbott followed him on
a long sigh, Lilly still draped in his arms.

Sylvia went next, but at least she offered some encouragement. “Eden might not be
able to get us out of this, girls, but Kiran and Avalon will.”

“Tut, tut, Olivia. In you go,” Terletov gestured again. “And do bring your lovely
sister with you.”

I looked down at O and felt the sickening clench of anxiety tighten my stomach. My
sister just recovered, just woke up and I was now forced to walk her back into the
lion’s den? This did not feel right.

My mind rejected the idea of following any order Terletov gave and my body vehemently
overruled the idea of willingly walking into danger without Jericho by my side.

Jericho.

Where was he?

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jericho

“Son,” my dad greeted me as soon as I stepped out of the cab onto the slate driveway
of my parent’s Rio estate.

The foothills of the mountains seemed to begin just behind my parents sprawling, modern
home and the thick, tropical air wrapped around my skin, pressing down heavily with
its humid thickness.

“Dad,” I replied without hiding my irritation. I hated traveling commercial; it was
painfully slow and I’d just spent the last fifteen hours wasting time in filthy plane
terminals, surrounded by sweating, angry humans and trying to pretend first class
was something to celebrate. I hated customs more than all of that, especially when
I didn’t have a passport handy and the fact that I didn’t have a hanger full of vehicles
to choose from. When I arrived I was forced into grabbing a cab icing the final layer
of this shitty-day cake.

Alright, I knew this behavior and my attitude were wholly unacceptable. Normally all
of those things wouldn’t have been so bad except I added the weight of knowing my
mom and the former Queen were in danger and I’d sent Liv off to Romania without me.

“Are you alone?” he asked.

“I have a team coming. They should arrive within the half hour.”

“Let’s go inside, there are a few things we need to discuss before they join you.”

He turned around without another word, leaving me to follow after him. My father looked
every bit the politician he’d spent his life fighting to be. Sleeked-back, dark brown
hair with just the hint of gray highlighted his age at the temples and streaked to
the back of his head. His frame hadn’t deteriorated at all, despite his almost four
hundred years; he still stood tall, coiled with muscle and an arrogance that could
only be born from a position that terrified most others. His usually bronzed skin
was the only indicator that he felt concerned for my mom. He looked pale and sickly
flushed at the same time, almost like he could lapse into shock at any moment.

He pushed open the carved walnut door that represented my childhood and a lifetime
of memories that should belong to someone else. Stepping inside my home I felt like
a stranger here. I did not belong.

Somewhere in my teenage years my ideals and beliefs separated from my parents’ ingrained
philosophies. I began to think for myself. I began to see the world through moral,
equalized, compassionate lenses, shucking the prejudiced elitism my dad expected to
instill in me.

The home I walked into had some good memories, but they were overshadowed by the tone
of what my Kingdom used to be and the people my parents still were.

I did not like being back here.

And I did not like spending time with my father.

The few seconds we’d shared in each other’s presence only solidified that we had nothing
in common. I didn’t celebrate that there was nothing of a relationship between us
anymore, but I knew our individual isolation was necessary.

Until he realized that his racism and genocidal tendencies were wrong, there was nothing
I could do for him, and even less that I wanted from him.

In the sunken living room, he gestured to a comfortable leather chair. I sunk down,
exhausted from the last few days and my recent travel. I used my Magic to dispel the
jet lag and bone-deep fatigue, but I felt it still hovering on my edges, threatening
to sweep over me like a tsunami.

It didn’t help that Olivia was so far away, with her Magic closely at her side. I
wanted her Magic.

Needed it.

Craved it.

Or rather… craved her.

Separating from her had been harder than I could imagine and I was more than anxious
to get back to her. Even though our Magic hadn’t entirely split apart, despite our
distance, something didn’t feel right about the connection. I wanted to get back to
her as quickly as I could and fix that.

I wanted to do more than connect our Magic.

It was time for us to have a conversation. Time for me to lay down the law.

Or at least make a case why we could work out as a real, devoted couple.

“Tell me what happened.” My father stood before me, in tailored pants and a pressed
oxford that had been unbuttoned at the collar. His tie was notably missing. He looked…
stressed out. It was strange for me to see him this way.

His mossy green eyes came to rest on me and something ominous flashed in their depths.
“I have never understood the Monarchy you support.”

This did not sound good.

He continued, “You murdered a King and overthrew a government that thrived for centuries.
And you did it all on the whim of children.”

My hands gripped the arm rests of the chair I sat in, my fingers digging into the
soft leather, scratching at the smooth fabric. “I did not come here to listen to another
lecture on how Lucan deserved more. He was a tyrant. He killed at will. He was actively
involved in eradicating an entire race of people.”
My father snorted, “People… hardly.”

“Where is mom? Where is Analisa?”

“Do you know what a good politician does, Jericho? You’ve so readily accepted your
role in the new regime that I have to assume you’re equally ready to become the politician
you portray. But underneath the pomp, the circumstance, the celebrity of it all… do
you know your true purpose?”

I shook my head, too angry to speak.
“A good politician ignores what his people want and gives them what he knows they
need.”

My father’s words landed in the room with the lilting cadence of a slogan, but with
the depth and destruction of a suicide note.

“That sounds a little bit like civilization rape,” I drawled, hoping beyond anything
that he wasn’t serious.

He laughed lightly, like I’d just told a mildly amusing joke. “It is a little bit
like that, isn’t it? The masses are stupid, Jericho. They have been since the beginning
of time. Sure, there’s intelligence to be found when we weed them out one by one;
but as a whole they are ignorant, fickle and easily swayed. They don’t know what they
want and they sure as hell don’t know what they need. That’s where we come in.”

“We? As in you and me?”

“You and me, Lucan, any of the Regents… Terletov. Politicians, Jericho.” He paused
to survey his opulent house, breathing in the fresh air that drifted through the open
windows, even if it was thick with moisture. “We have a responsibility, Jericho. We
were born and bred to create countries and influence the future. Is it more important
who leads a country or what that country stands for? Of course, you would assume that
the two are closely related, and to some degree you would be right. But it is not
the people that decide what the leadership believes, rather their leaders that decide
what they believe. We tell them what to think and they think it. We tell them what
to do and they do it. You are misguided when you think that handing them their free
will can accomplish anything but confusion, chaos and delusion.”

“The only one confused is me.” I held onto my patience with a single thread of familial
responsibility and nothing else.

“You’ve lost, Jericho. Again. Your Kings and Queens will die within the hour and the
Monarchy will once again be placed in capable hands. We struggled for millennia to
purify our Magic and within a few short years you and your friends have all but undone
our hard work. We will stand for it no more.”

“This is about racism? The Shifters?” I couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded. The core
of the Kendrick Monarchy had been about blood purity and racism, I knew that. But
with Lucan especially, there had been so many other factors- greed, power, Delia and
Justice… The Shape-Shifters were a huge part of Lucan’s ticket, but not more so than
his thirst for true Immortality and hunger for power. Even with Terletov, I felt that
he had some greater creed to live by. He wasn’t just murdering Shape-Shifters; he
was using them, creating a race of
super soldiers
. Maybe he didn’t want the Magic free, but did his entire rebellion center on racial
prejudice?

“Of course this is about those animals!” My father’s eyes darkened with cold, dangerous
fury. His entire body seemed to vibrate.

“Are you working with Terletov?” I jumped to my feet and felt the gutting fury rip
through me. Up until this moment I had believed it was a possibility but never really
suspected my father of this kind of treachery. I knew he had sore feelings when Lucan
fell; his pride had been hurt when his title stripped away, but I couldn’t make myself
believe he would stoop to this level of depravity.

“Dmitri needed support. And he championed a cause I could stand behind.” My father’s
expression became cocky, self-righteous with conviction.

“What have you done?” I demanded, barely recognizing the stripped, gravelly sound
to my own voice.

“No more than what you did.” His nose lifted in the air as if he were examining an
insect under his polished shoe. “You stopped believing the Monarchy perpetuated your
causes and political opinions, so you found a way to propagate them anyway. You didn’t
agree with the Monarchy that had been chosen by the people, supported by the people
and revered by the people, so you forced a coup and then forced your will. We have
used similar tactics with greater results.”

I was now vibrating with anger, my vision doused completely in red. This was the man
that raised me? This was the man I called
Father
?

“You’re sick,” I told him. “You’ve bought into filthy lies and people are dying because
of your sadistic illusions.”

“
Your right
is not better than mine.
Your will
is not farther reaching than mine. At least not when it comes to the majority. They
don’t ask you to
feel
for them, Son; they simply ask you to
think
for them. Guilt is left for the weak man, regrets for the loser.”

“The people will fight this.”

“The people will follow whoever sits on the Throne. And the small percentage of the
population that would object are being rounded up and used to serve a greater purpose.”
He paused and smiled softly. “Most of the population is already on edge with the imbalance.
They quake in fear and hide in their homes. They only care about stability, Jericho;
not who gives it to them.”

“You will not get away with this,” I told him, feeling like every bad sci-fi movie
since the eighties but unable to stop the words. They were true.

Absolutely true.

“I already have,” he taunted.

My mind flashed back to what he said about the Citadel being taken over. Could Eden,
Avalon, Amelia and Kiran really be in trouble?

Oh, god, Olivia.

“Maybe the cause you fight for, but your personal aspirations die today.”

“I brought you here to save you.” This time when I met his cold gaze, I could see
the traces of sympathy and concern wrinkling his expression. “The Citadel fell an
hour ago. I didn’t want you near Romania when it happened.”

Olivia.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

She was forefront on my mind. Not even my friends could add to the panic, not when
I knew she was in danger.

My father must have noticed my panic because he held a hand out for me, but I stumbled
back out of his reach and landed in the leather chair. I felt sick, so sick the room
began to spin and a massive headache attacked my frontal lobe.

“It’s better that you’re here,” my father intoned with the same concrete authority
he’d used my entire life. He spoke in facts, not suggestions.

“And Mom?”

“She’s alright,” he told me with a heavy sigh. “She’s with Analisa, that part was
at least true. But they’re not in danger. At least not yet.”

“What do you mean not yet?”

“I need you to cooperate,” he shrugged as if that were obvious.

“So you would hold your own wife ransom if it meant I would concede to your will?”

“You are my son.”

“Not anymore.” I pushed to my feet and decided to call his bluff. My mind spun at
a thousand miles an hours. Olivia. My mom. Analisa. The Citadel. My friends.
Where do I start?

“Don’t make me do something we will both regret,” he warned. He reached into his back
pocket and pulled out a set of handcuffs. “I’ve been a generous father so far. I’ve
let you act out your youthful rebellion and go off to sow your oats. But this ends
now. It’s time to claim your place in this family and start doing what’s right.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I expected an epic battle between the two of us, but
I had overlooked the most important fact of our entire altercation. My father was
a politician. He’d been one his entire life.

And he came from a Monarchy that only allowed their Guards to fight.

He had been constantly comparing us since I arrived: both of us politicians, both
of us fighting for a cause we believed in by playing games and working for kings.