Avenge (16 page)

I didn’t respond. Instead I
closed my eyes and leaned my head on Cassie’s shoulder. She scooped
up my hand and intertwined our fingers, squeezing gently. I had no
idea how I was going to begin to tell them what happened, but I
knew I needed to. They were my only hope of getting Max
back.

Chapter
Nineteen

The trip back to our realm was quick,
but then again, I was too numb to feel much of anything. James
insisted I get checked out thoroughly by the medical team as soon
as we got back, and I was poked, prodded, and swabbed from head to
toe. They raked through my hair and scraped under my fingernails.
I’m pretty sure they were looking for evidence rather than
injuries, but I was okay with that. I hoped they found something
that could lead us back to Max and Jessica’s souls.

When they were done, they told me I
could head back to my room. Cassie was waiting right outside and
walked with me. She informed me that I’d been missing for over a
month, and after they physically forced Max to leave New Orleans
and come back home to regroup, he had torn our Dwelling to shreds
in frustration. He eventually had to be sedated, and then he hid in
our dark room for days, refusing to see anyone. I bit my lip to
keep from screaming when I found out what he’d gone through. Guilt
poured through me, knowing it was my fault.

As soon as I entered the bedroom that
Max and I shared, the clean, spicy scent of him invaded my nose. I
saw the dried daisies that he’d picked for me on our first “real
date.” I lost it. I couldn’t stay here. I couldn’t be here, knowing
it was my fault that everything had happened. He’d been battling
vampires and werewolves for almost 200 years, but as soon as he met
me, I practically paved the path for the vampires to head straight
for him. And his love and concern for me had caused him to be
tricked. He never would have fallen for their plan if I hadn’t been
in danger. Or around at all.

“
C’mon, you’re staying with
me. Adam can stay here or on our couch. It’s you and me tonight,
girly.” I couldn’t talk, so I nodded and grabbed Max’s pillow and
some pajamas before turning away. “You sure you want his pillow?”
When I looked at her, she just nodded her head. I needed something
of Max with me.

“
Darlin’, you’ve got the
best piece of him right there.” She pointed to my heart. “And
that’s not going anywhere. Now let’s go paint our fingers and toes.
Yours are a fright!”

I choked out a laugh and wrapped my
arm around her waist. “How did I get so lucky with a best friend
like you?”

Cassie winked at me. “I know, right?!
The fates must’ve been smilin’ on you that day.”

“
Can you go get Frenchie
from Amelia too? I want her with me.”

“
Absolutely.”

About an hour later, Cassie painted my
toes and Lola painted my fingers while they chatted away about
mundane stuff. I knew they were trying to keep me busy so I
couldn’t dwell on what happened, and I was grateful. I knew if
there was even a minute of silence, I would break down again. They
talked about everything, just to keep talking. Everything except
New Orleans and Max. Cassie told me about a time when Adam fell
asleep on their “movie night” date, so she made him regret it. She
took every alarm in the house and set them to go off at the same
time, then turned their volume up to maximum and put them all right
next to his head. When they all went off at the same time, he
jumped four feet in the air, startled out of his wits. I chuckled
at the story, but it was forced. I knew they were trying to help
pass the time until I was debriefed, but all I wanted to do was
curl in a ball and wrap up in Max’s pillow.

“
So, uh, Lucy, while you
were…gone, I was the next to have my new power manifest,” Cassie
told me. I could see that she was nervous about upsetting me, but I
perked up.

“
Cassie, that’s fantastic.
What was it? I want to hear everything.” Anything to keep my mind
off of the collection of rocks forming in the pit of my
stomach.

“
Well, it’s not as cool as
yours, but I think it’s perfect.” Her eyes wouldn’t meet mine, and
I shifted wondering what she was hiding from me.

“
What’s your power?” I
asked her again.

“
I can sense when vampires
are in close proximity to us. Within a few miles, give or take.
When one gets close enough, my skin starts to tingle in a painful
way, like pinpricks. I swear the first time it happened I thought I
was going crazy. I kept swatting at my skin like mosquitoes were
biting me.”

“
Your power hurts you?” I
lowered my gaze and shoved my hands inside my pockets. I got a
power of protection and she got one that was painful.

“
It did at first, but once
I got used to it, I looked forward to feeling it because I knew
that it meant finding you.”

“
It’s her Spidey-sense!”
Lola piped up. “Except for vamps. So it’s her
Vampy-sense!”

We giggled at the picture of Cassie as
Spiderman for a minute, but then Cassie became serious. She turned
to face me and looked me in the eye. “I first felt it when we were
walking in New Orleans. I didn’t know what it was, and that’s why
Adam and I went off by ourselves to talk. We were trying to figure
out why I was feeling all the pin pricks. I wish I realized what it
was before you were taken. I feel really guilty about that. But, it
helped me save you. I was able to lead James to where the vampires
dropped you off. And I’d gladly feel a thousand more pin pricks if
it means getting Max back too.”

There was a quick rapping at the door,
and we all stopped and looked up. Frenchie sat up next to me,
growling. She was such a good guard dog. “Hey, am I interrupting
anything?” James peeked his head inside, and after getting the all
clear from Cassie, he stepped through the doorway and leaned
against the wall. “How are you doing, Luce? Are you up to talking
about what happened yet?”

I took a deep breath, and then another
to force the tears at bay. “We can talk.” I pulled Frenchie closer
to me and began petting her head absently.

“
I know this is probably
the last thing you want to be doing, but we need to do it while the
memories are still fresh. It’ll give us the best chance of figuring
things out and coming up with a game plan.”

“
I’m willing to do whatever
I have to do. Don’t be gentle or use kid gloves. If it costs me a
little pain to fix this, then it’s worth it.” I stood up ready to
follow him wherever we needed to go.

“
No, we can do this here.
It’ll help you relax if you’re in a comfortable location and the
more relaxed you are, the more accurate your memory will be. Under
normal circumstances, I’d use your bracelet to decode and playback
what happened, but they somehow managed to get it off.”

I rubbed my right hand down my left
arm, stopping to trace over the new bracelet I’d been given when
they examined me. It sparkled in the light, and I hated it. I
wanted my bracelet back. The one Max used to trace over and over
again when he told me he was so glad I’d come into his world. This
new, shiny one was a reminder of everything I’d lost.

“
I know how they got it
off,” I stated simply.

James’s eyes went wide with surprise.
“Are you sure? No one’s been able to figure it out. We’ve been
banging our heads trying to figure out how the bracelet
failed.”

“
They turned—” I swallowed
the lump in my throat and forced myself to say the words. “They
turned Max into a vampire. As soon as they did, the bracelet slid
right off.”

Cassie covered her mouth in shock, and
James began furiously typing away at the keyboard he conjured. “I’m
calling the team. I’m sorry, Lucy, but it isn’t safe to talk about
this here. We need to go…elsewhere.”

I nodded, not needing to say anything
more. I knew that with the spy still out there, we really couldn’t
do much unless we were secured in our Gideon facility. James placed
his hand on the small of my back and led me out the door. Cassie
and Lola slipped on their shoes and followed, but no one said a
word during the short walk.

James wasted no time in getting
started. He addressed the group and then dropped the bomb about
Max’s current status. A few hands rubbed my shoulders and gave me
reassuring squeezes, but I couldn’t bring myself to look in their
eyes. Their pity would kill me, rot in me every time I closed my
eyes. I was barely holding it together as it was, so I kept my head
down and focused on a scuff mark on my shoe.

“
Um, can I ask a question?”
Zander interrupted. James nodded and he continued. “If they took
Max’s bracelet off by making him a vampire, then how did they get
Lucy’s off?”

“
Yeah, I mean, there has to
be another way,” Cassie piped up. “She’s not all fangy now. So why
turn him?”

“
I was turned,” I sniffled.
“At least, I think I was. But they turned me back. They needed to
use my bracelet to gain control of me and hack into it. Then, I
think they manipulated it so it jammed your signal and you couldn’t
find me. I’m sure they used it for other things too, but I know
that as soon as Max entered the building where I was held, he
couldn’t call for help any more. We were trying to escape so you
could ping our location, but it didn’t work. There were too many of
them.”

“
The Louisiana team already
sent a group to the location Max last checked in, and based off
what you told me earlier, we think we found the warehouse.
Unfortunately, it was completely cleared out.”

“
They said they were
leaving. They have another location, but I never heard them say
where.”

I could hear Adam grinding his teeth
in frustration, and Marco let out a deep sigh. “So you think
they’ll turn him back once they have his bracelet off?”

Tears welled in my eyes. “I hope so,
but I don’t know. When they took my bracelet away, it made it
harder for my body to heal. So when they fed from me—”

“
They fed from you?!” Adam
yelled.

“
For weeks. Every time they
made newborns, they made them feed from me to become stronger. When
Max agreed to surrender in return for my release, Alastair
practically salivated at getting his older, stronger
blood.”

“
I swear to all that is
holy, I am going to rip each one of their pathetic pointed teeth
out of their mouths and then shove them up their—”

“
Enough, Adam. We get that
you’re upset, and he’s your best friend. We’re all upset. But we
need to keep a cool head here and think of a way to outsmart them.
Chess, my friend. Not dodgeball.”

Adam grunted and sat back down,
smoothing his hands on his pant legs. “Dodgeball’s a lot more
satisfying.”

Marco smirked slightly, and Zander and
Adam grunted and nodded their heads. James ignored the comment and
continued. “What else can you tell us, Lucy? The more details we
have, the better our positioning for our next attack.”

I squirmed in my seat as all eyes
turned on me. I knew I needed to tell them, but they’d hate me for
causing the whole mess. Not that I’d blame them—I was at fault. It
was hard to see the disappointment and shamed looks I would get. I
flattened my hands on my thighs, but found myself digging my nails
into the skin there as I began recounting the story. Once I
started, I held nothing back. I told them every detail I could
remember from the moment I saw the Jessica imposter and ran after
her until the hood was placed over my head and I was shoved into a
trunk.

When I finished, I swallowed hard and
finally looked up at everyone. Cassie was holding Adam’s hand,
James was pacing the room, but what shocked me the most was
Elizabeth was dabbing her eyes—was she crying? I saw red and made a
fist, digging my newly manicured nails into my palms.

“
Listen, I don’t need any
of your stupid pity,” I spat at the group. “You don’t think I know
that this is my fault? You don’t think I know that everything I
love turns to fuckin’ stone? That I’m a plague here?” I stood up
and stormed out of the room to the astonishment of the now silent
group. I shoved a chair out of my way as I rounded a corner,
screaming back to them, “Just leave me the hell alone before I
screw up your afterlives too!”