Awakened (11 page)

Mia paused and looked at Jace. He inclined his head, as if giving her permission to
continue—a friendly gesture that didn’t go unnoticed. “Are you gonna tell us what
is really going on with her? ‘Cause I have to admit, at first I thought she and Alex
were nuts, but now—” Mia sank back onto the sofa, her gaze glazing over as her fear
took her.

Jace sat beside Mia. “You are all entitled to the truth, and now that I know of the
Council’s true intent, I think it is time I explain myself,” Jace said gently, surprising
me.

She absently stroked her bandage and offered Jace a broken smile. I wondered how he
expected to explain the truth without revealing his immortality and other sensitive
information that we’d already agreed to keep quiet. How would he filter it? I crossed
my arms, leaned back against the wall, and waited.

Alex’s phone blasted some bass music produced solely for those without ears. “Crap,
it’s my dad. I got to take this.” He cast a worried glance at me.

“Remember what I told you,” I reminded him. Alex’s parents didn’t believe that she
had runaway even though most of her belongings were gone—well, they were here in this
home, but that was beside the point. The only thing that saved him from the sheriff’s
suspicion was the fact that one of Laurent’s men had infiltrated the police department
in Elmwood City. Apparently impersonating an officer of the law was difficult in a
small town. The girls that had gone missing weeks before in Elmwood City were found
in Cedar bringing Elmwood City police to almost every doorstep in Cedar. It was hard
to hide in a small town which was why I opted to live in the mausoleum when I found
Ella in Cedar. There were no questioning glances or whispered rumors about who I was
or where I’d come from.

“I know.” Alex growled as he answered the phone. His alpha male persona was starting
to really bother me. He did play an important role in the group, as the only liaison
we had with his parents and the sheriff.

“Kale.” As the first time Jace spoke my name without utter disgust, it got my attention.
He jerked his chin toward the kitchen. “A moment, please.”

Knowing what he wanted to ask, I went ahead into the kitchen. The subject could no
longer be skirted. Mia and Alex needed to know what we were fighting. My eye captured
the cooler that normally held my dinner. Its emptiness weighed heavily on my mind.
After a century of drinking bagged blood without the use of my fangs, I could easily
hide them, but they ached to be free. La Luxure and its need for blood from warm flesh
increased the hunger I had so easily controlled before.

After coddling Mia a moment longer, Jace waltzed in. “My immortality is nothing that
I am ashamed of.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, a silly habit I’d picked up from Ella.

“So when I tell Mia and Alex of my true nature, what should I say you are? Chorý,
Nosophoros, Nosferat, or parasite? ‘Parasite’ being my personal favorite.” A harsh
smile edged his lips.

I returned the smile, but for an entirely different reason. I eyed the thumping vein
on his neck and closed my eyes. The voice spoke to me, clear as day, and asked the
question I wondered myself:
How sweet and strong would the blood of an immortal taste?

I slowly opened my eyes and smiled. “Jace, I have no blood here at the moment.” I
flicked a glance at the cooler and then back to Jace, who looked unaffected by my
comment. “Do you think that Mia tastes as sweet as she looks?” I asked, playing at
his newfound weakness with the sapphire-eyed blonde and ignoring the beast’s request
for Jace’s immortal blood. The beast growled low in my belly as Jace’s lips peeled
back from his teeth and an equally threatening growl emanated from deep within him.
I smiled, allowing him to see each inch of the sharpened canine that I’d threatened
to sink into the unmarred flesh of his new crush.

“If you so much as—”

“Shut. Up. You pompous cod.” I gritted my teeth as my anger arose. My accent thickened,
and my fangs descended. Jace spoke my native tongue, and I his—Belarusian was easy
enough to learn. “I have not given in to
la Luxure de Sang
in more than a century. Continue to test me, and you shall see my true beast,” I
promised in his native tongue.

Jace clenched his fists. “How shall I explain your
situation
to them?”

I didn’t want to be associated with the corruption of the Council; nor did I want
the disease of the Chorý tainting my name, no matter how merited it might have been.
If Jace aimed to tell the truth about our immortality and I didn’t claim to have been
created by the Council, then my immortality would become an issue, and I didn’t think
that my being Chorý and having a thirst for blood would go over well with either Alex
or Mia.

Jace doubtless hoped that Alex and Mia would ally with him, upon learning of my disease.
There was nothing I could do to stop it.

“Tell them whatever you please. It’s no concern of mine what they think of me.” It
was a lie, but what else could I do?

Jace only chuckled and walked back into the living room. I didn’t follow him; I stared
at the cooler, willing blood to be inside as if I were some sort of magician.

Mia’s heart raced as Jace returned to her, and I’d had to force myself to ignore the
pace of Alex’s pulse since he’d answered his phone. This situation sucked, for lack
of a better word. Back in the living room, Jace and Mia whispered quietly to each
other as Alex ended his call.

“Crap!” Alex’s voice carried from the living room.

I went out to find out what happened, Jace coming with me. “What?”

Alex expelled a heavy sigh. “The sheriff is thinking of calling in the FBI. My dad
said that since Ella’s body hasn’t been found, the sheriff believes that the FBI can
help bring her back, alive.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment. I closed my eyes and remembered to think before I
spoke, because a few choice words had taken residence on my tongue.

“I think we need to tell the truth,” Mia said, her voice barely a whisper. Alex asked
her to repeat herself.

I answered her first, and not harshly. “No.” This had gone far enough; there were
some truths that needed to be told, and soon. The sooner Mia realized what we were
up against, the sooner she would take to heart the gravity of her new “stalker”.

“Kale is right. There is more to Laurent than just an evil man with a
convoitise pour la puissance
,” Jace drawled, earning confused glares from Mia and Alex. He wasn’t doing very well
explaining something as simple as—

“A lust for power,” I translated. “It is often called ‘
Le Besoin
’—or, in English, ‘the Need.’ It’s the powerful need to have power and dominance over
all.”

Mia and Alex stared at me, wide-eyed. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“What kind of power?” Mia’s eyes glowed with curiosity.

“He means like the power he and Jace have,” Alex accused. I met his stare head-on;
he had some clue as to what Jace and I really were. I wondered how far off-base his
little brain was from the truth. “Mia and I have been discussing some stuff, too.”

I raised a brow at Mia, and she blanched. So much for defending her partner, Alex.

“We know that something isn’t right with you and Jace. You’re both too strong, too
fast, and Kale—dude, you keep sniffing the wind like a lost puppy that can turn into
a Rottweiler at the first sign of trouble.” Alex’s words were true—childish, but true.

I leaned further back on the wall, amused by the assessment. I’d heard much worse.
Alex seemed so sure of himself that I almost wanted to tell him the truth right then
to see the blood drain beneath his skin from fear and shock.

“And don’t get me started on that fact that you and Jace both seem to be too young
to have the fighting skills that you both have.”

Jace stood and drifted to the window, and Mia shivered in his absence. Jace stared
pensively out the window. “There are things that happen in this world that you know
nothing about, yes?” His question was directed to Mia and Alex.

“Yeah, what are you getting at?” Alex asked suspiciously.

Mia cocked her head, eyeing Jace. I wondered what Jace knew of our kinds’ origins
compared to what my Grand-père Grey had told me long ago. I wavered between the options
of dismissing Alex and Mia completely and of granting them the secrets they wanted.
What would happen once we retrieved Ella? Would something as vital as the existence
of Immortals, the Chorý race, and vampires stay contained?

“Is Ella a psychic or something?” Mia’s question chased away my thoughts.

“You know of the Council, but you don’t know how it was truly created.” Jace glanced
at me. He wasn’t going to tell me anything that I didn’t already know about his master
Aleixandre. “There is a common story that a group of men travelled in search for eternal
life and found what they had searched for. Many have said that it was a spring called
the Fountain of Youth, but that is a myth—”

“Just wait a minute,” Alex interrupted, his brow knitted in disbelief. “You’re asking
us to believe that this Larry guy has never-ending life?”

He seemed to think that this was either a joke or some way of getting him and Mia
to want out of our new ill-formed group. Though I wanted to search for Ella alone,
there were too many obstacles in my way, and pushing Mia and Alex away without so
much as a small explanation could be hazardous to my search for Ella. Who knew what
stories they would carry to the FBI?

“Laurent,” Jace corrected coolly. “And if you would please be seated and keep your
mouth closed, I will tell you all about ‘Larry,’ as you called him, and why your very
life depends on the information I give you never leaving this room.”

Ella

About lunchtime, Ana and I sat at the round stone table in the dining hall, waiting
for Darke to return. The past two days, all I had done was wait. I was sick of it.
Ana had taken perfect care of me, and Darke proven not to be the jerk ogre I’d originally
thought he was. He still wasn’t friendly, but he was bearable to be around.

Neither would tell me exactly why I was waiting for Laurent. He had waited so long
for me, and now I was here, and he was nowhere to be found. It didn’t make sense.

I still hadn’t figured out where I was, but from the looks of it, I was in some lavish
home. I could only imagine what it looked like on the outside, based on the over-elaborate
furnishings and decoration inside. Being here was like being in another country, and
I wondered if Ana and Darke had lied about us not being in France.

The dining room was the only room that I’d been in with a window, and it was blacked
out. Two days, and I was no closer to figuring out where I was or how I could get
in touch with Kale or Jace. The only thing I was lucky enough to get was the necklace
that Kale had given me out of my pants pocket—snatched in the one time I’d been left
alone.

“What are you thinking about?” Ana’s soft accented voice pulled me out of my reverie.
She was perched on the edge of her chair with her chin in her palm, giving me a probing
stare. She often studied me, and it was starting to creep me out a bit. What was she
looking for in me? Recognition? Understanding?

“Where is Laurent?” I knew she wasn’t going to tell me; she hadn’t answered any of
the million questions I’d asked in the past two days. Darke had answered one question—one
I’d chosen, and I’d made the wrong choice. He had to babysit me “because Laurent trusted
no one else with you but Ana and me.” I should have asked about Agnes and her father.
I wasn’t sure how that would help me, but Darke had hinted that knowing who they were
would be the answer I needed.

“I don’t know,” she answered, to my surprise.

Oddly enough, I believed her. Either she told the truth, or she was just a darn good
liar.

“He doesn’t tell me these things. I am here for you.” Though it was the first time
she’d explained that to me, I had figured that out two days ago. She catered to my
every need and had even brought me a movie to watch one night when I couldn’t sleep.

“So if it’s your job to be nice to me and take care of me, what’s Darke’s job?” I
asked just as he walked through the archway with bags of food.

We weren’t in the U.S. anymore. The takeout bags’ messages were in French, not English.
They had both lied to me; we were in France—at least, that was my best guess, since
both Laurent and Hélène were both from that country. Had my room actually belonged
to Hélène? I thought that I felt her there, but maybe it was all in my head.

Then again, why had I expected them to be anything but dishonest with me? I schooled
my angry expression.

Darke approached us and placed the food down on the table in front of Ana. She proceeded
to serve it. He moved to the corner and stared at me. “My job is to ensure that when
you try to escape, you do not get far.”

He smiled at my expression and leaned a little toward me. “Also, I am here to make
sure your Council guardian and Chorý friend don’t try anything stupid—like, say, a
rescue attempt.”

Though Darke’s mood sucked, I was getting some info I wanted. I rolled my eyes at
him but swallowed my snarky remark. “So, you think that if I run, I could get away?
I don’t even know where I am.”

Neither Darke nor Ana was stupid. I needed more information, so I didn’t let the rising
anger hinder me. If I weren’t careful, I was bound to say something that would anger
him. He was wrong if he thought I wasn’t learning anything from what he had just told
me. He couldn’t take Jace and Kale alone, so somewhere in this house, there were more
Chorý.

“Eat,” Ana said.

I hadn’t even noticed that there was food in front of me, but as annoyed as I was,
my stomach reminded me that I needed to eat. I looked around for the bags, hoping
to see a label again, but Ana had already taken them in to the massive kitchen and
returned to the table when I wasn’t watching.