5 Darkness Falls (26 page)

The next few hours were a blur of commotion. Sanders and a few other army and Bladang soldiers joined us. Whatever it was, I knew it was serio
us for them to call in back up.

Chapter 23

Kellan

Damn it.
I’d royally fucked up.

I’d lost count of the miles I’d traveled with my dad and Derek still knocked out
,
in my arms. If Cecilia’s team did catch up to us, Al was going to be angry. He’d specifically said for me to leave him behind,
reminding me
that I had a baby to think of.

I guess in the moment, it was easier to focus on what was in front of me rather than what was ahead of me. I thought of all the times my dad had supported me when I’d been nothing but a disgrace. He never gave up on me. Even my mother had been exasperated by me at times.

Lexi, I feared, was drawing dangerously close to the point of no return when it came to
being frustrated with
me. Having a baby with her wasn’t changing that
.
I couldn’t blame her. Staying together for a child would inevitably make you miserable. No child could be happy with miserable parent
s.

I slowed as I reached another clearing. It looked familiar. The moment I saw the snapped limb, I knew I was only a couple miles from the car. My dad had said if things got hot in the war zone, our minds would fuddle and we might need signs to assure us we were on the right track
in getting
back to base. He always thought of everything. Which meant
…

Shit!
He’d known. Looking at Cecilia’s house, he knew what we’d encounter. He had too much training not to at least know the
re
was a basement or
a
cellar. But he’d let me lead. He’d allowed me to call the shots, even at the risk of losing his
own
life.

There’s nothing
like adding whip cream and a cherry
on
top of my
heaping pile of
guilt
.

I sped up, running full
steam
towards the vehicle. I pulled the keys from my pocket, another switch my dad had insisted on despite him driving here.

I pressed the button, awkwardly shift
ing
the men so I could launch my dad across the back seat. I slammed the door behind him, opened the trunk and did the same with Derek.

I hopped in the front seat
and
locked the doors
. After starting
the engine
, I
sped off. I
may not
know where
we were
going, but I
knew we
had to get there fast.

I whipped out my cell phone to make the necessary calls.

***

Lexi

“Hello?” His accent was thick as he answered my call.

“Hi, Jack. I have a huge favor to ask you.”

“Hello, Lexi. What can I do for you?”

“If I e-mail you some files, can you run them through the voice recognition software?”

“Of course.”

There was a rustling of the phone before the storm
came
.

“What is going on? No one is answering their phone, but I heard the freaking order for some of our men to get to your apartment.” Gabi didn’t have patience; her tone reflected her
‘I want answers now’
attitude.

“They’ve left me in the dark, but I assume it has something to do with Kellan
,
because
I haven’t heard from him since he left.”

“
Santos ciruelas de azúcar.
”

I snickered. “I’ve never heard Mel’s phrase in Spanish before.”

She was quiet
, and quiet
for Gabi was rare. It meant she was
shocked;
it meant she was overwhelmed beyond words.

“I’m going to e-mail Jack some files for him to run through the voice recognition software. The sooner you
guys can
get those back to us, the
better
chance we have at locating Kellan.”

“Of course,
chica
. We’ll call you in a bit.” Her voice was soft, solemn.

“Thanks.” I hung up my phone.

I needed to do something. They’d forbidden me from leaving the condo. They were IDing everyone at the door with badges and retina scans. It seemed like they were going overboard. If it wasn’t for my baby, I would demand that they all leave. I would force them into letting me fight my own battle
.

I needed a distraction
,
a way to get beyond the chaos within my home. My house had become a temporary base. Meetings, briefings
and
huddles around
the
map cover
ing my
dining
room
table were bothersome. Men stationed at windows in every room plus a team patrolling my balcony sent my pulse racing every time I considered the danger that must be closing in on me for security to be so tight.

I e-mailed Jack the chat files before moving into the kitchen with my laptop. I pulled up the orders that had poured in since this morning’s fulfillment for Bloody Bakes. I strapped the iPod around my arm, stuffed the earbuds in
place
and blasted the music to drown out the pandemonium.

I spent the next several hours baking. It was
very
centering
;
it seemed to align my chakras
in
the
same
way it calmed me during stressful time
s
.

“Holy shit. It’s like the flipping C.I.A. headquarters in here.”

I looked up at Gabi in surprise. I yanked the earbuds from my ears
, scrubbing
my hands on my apron. “What are you doing here?”

Jack moved in behind her. “We’ve been calling you for hours now. When we couldn’t get a hold of you, Gabi panicked and demanded we come
over to
check on you.”

“Thanks. You could have called Kai, you know.”

“Hm. That someone wasn’t answering his phone either. Guess I’m not important enough,” she scoffed, throwing her nose up in the air.

“Did you get a positive ID?”

“Yes.” Jack handed me two sheets of paper.

“Derek Lucero?” I scanned the information printed. “We’re related?”

“I dug deeper. Turns out his father was Sharon’s half-brother. This makes you first cousins,” Jack explained.

I stared at the photo. Unlike Kalia’s, this was a perfect picture,
clear as a bell.

Derek stood about the same height as Kellan, around six feet. His dark blonde hair was a perfect fade into spikes atop. His brown eyes were dark, yet they had hints of honey striations, reminiscent of my own.

Even though the paper clearly said he was a vampeen, my chest tightened. Why would a vampeen, bred from my grandfather, want to help Kellan, a vampire? The fact that he was a vampeen made me feel somewhat better
though,
because Cecilia wouldn’t hire a vampeen from what I’d learned. But, what did Derek want from Kellan? Cousin or not, Kellan was supreme. I didn’t need his blood running through me to. I had something better. His baby.

***

I rolled over and hit something hard; no, not something. Someone.

My eyes flew open.

“Shh. It’s just me.” His voice soothed me. It made all those hours of fretting
slip away.

My heart pounded as I studied Kellan. His left eye was black and swollen. “What happened to you?” I sat up in the bed. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d gotten to the room, but didn’t care
at this point
.

I traced a gentle finger along the bruised skin, frowning.

He chuckled. “Kai has quite a right hook. Socked the shit out of me for putting you through hell.”

My movements faltered. “You’re not mad?”

“I’m glad you have someone who would go to the ends of the earth to protect you in my absence.” He grew pensive as he rubbed my hard belly. “I don’t know if the prophecy is true or not, babe. A lot of things are lining up.”

“Don’t talk like that.” My voice was a soft plea.

God, I’d been so scared. Facing a reality without him, even a small taste of it, was almost too much, even
if
I was angry beyond words with him.

“A while back, I talked to Kai about stepping in if something happened to me. I don’t like him, but I respect him. He’s stepped on my territory a few times, but he’s never betrayed you. He’s been there in every battle and done all he could to keep you safe, even when I didn’t. I don’t like him, but he’s the only person I would trust you with
if
I was gone.”

Tears stung my eyes. I’d just gotten him back
,
and he was already talking about leaving me again.

He
held
my face
in the palms of his hands
. “Hey. I’m not planning on going anywhere, but I want us to be on the same page just in case.”

I swaddled by belly. Kai was a good substitute. I knew he would always love me and be there for me, perhaps better than Kellan in some instances. But he wasn’t Kellan. My soul didn’t dance freely with Kai at every embrace. My heart didn’t skip a beat
every
time I saw him.

I
grabbed
his shirt. “Never do that to me again. Ever,” I growled as hot tears slid down my cheeks, colliding with his hands.

“I’m sorry.” His eyes were glossy, full of repentance.

I let go
, wrapping
my hands around his wrists, lightly tugging his hands away. “Kellan, what’s happened to us? We were once a really strong couple. Now, I don’t even feel like I’m looking at the man I love sometimes. There’s too much distance; too much chaos and
way
too many secrets. I can’t even access your mind sometimes when we kiss. That’s new. It’s like…” I shrugged. “I feel like I’m losing you little by little.” More tears built as I
kept eye contact with
him.

He sat up in front of me, a pained expression on his face. “I was trying to pull away. Lex, I’ve been studying the prophecy with Will while you’ve been at the office so much lately. We were trying to pinpoint a window of time when
…”
He swallowed hard,
peering
down at my baby bump
– our baby bump
. He lifted his gaze
,
slowly. “When
I
would be hit.”

My heart lurched, my pulse picking up. Anxiety shot through me as fear squeezed my
chest.
“And?”

“It’s soon. It’s before the baby is born.” His voice was low, sorrowful.

I couldn’t hold back the tears that
flooded
my eyes. “I hate that stupid freaking book! I wish no one ever wrote it. We’re not meant to know our futures. I could still be enjoying the presen
t
if it wasn’t for that stupid
fore
shadow of prophecy.”

“I was trying to make it easier. I don’t know if I fully believe every word in there, but a lot of it has happened already, which
is really compelling.
The prophecy is slowly morphing from speculated truth to history.” He grabbed my hands, lacing his fingers with mine. “I thought if I pulled back, if I forced you to let go of me before anything happened, that it wouldn’t hurt as much when it came to fruition.”

“How could you decide that alone? I’d rather have more happy times, more memories to pass down to our child than to let go of you out of resentment.”

He stared at me. It seemed like he was beginning to realize the error of his ways, regardless of his good intentions, but rather that follow through, he slipped on a mask.

“Don’t do that, Kellan. Please don’t shut me out.” I jerked on his hands.

He mashed his lips together. “I got you into this mess, Lex. The reason all these people are here is because I caught up with Cecilia, and rather than take her out, like I wanted, I pissed her off. She’s issued a death order on you.”

“
It’s not like
we haven’t faced this before?” I yelled, exasperated. “Self pity isn’t a good enough reason to hurt me like this, Kellan, and it’s sure as hell not a good enough reason to give up on us.”

I released him, sliding off the bed and heading for the door. I glanced back over my shoulder. “Think about that, Kellan. What’s the point? Why live the last of your time punishing yourself
,
and me
,
rather than making the most of your time?”