Darkness Divides (Sensor #3) (38 page)

Chapter Forty-two

There was a time when having eighty sups gathered in one spot would have given me a punishing migraine. Becoming immortal helped stem that problem, but it was my trip to the fae city that really made everything else seem minor in comparison. Now there was just a little ache in the back of my neck.

After Lucas caught me rubbing at it, he’d taken over the job. It’d look like a possessive move to anyone else, but it was pure heaven for me. Staying in contact with each other also helped us keep calm, which was good because Kerbasi had decided to show up for the meeting. I held his report in my hand, but hadn’t had a chance to read it yet.

Nik wouldn’t start the meeting for another ten minutes, so I decided it was a good way to occupy myself. By the third paragraph I almost started to feel sorry for the guardian. If this was the way he looked at life, it was no wonder his only pleasure came from torturing people.

Love is what humans use to delude themselves into thinking they are more important than what reality dictates. It is a senseless waste of emotion. Humans crave it because they lack a sense of direction or purpose in life and hope the emotion will fill the empty holes in their pathetic little hearts. If they were wiser, they would concentrate their efforts on becoming purer and more untouched by the world around them. Only then could they hope to accomplish anything worthy.

It just got worse from there. This was the problem with races who were “made” rather than “born.” They never had parents or other family to care for them and show them how beautiful life could be. I doubted Kerbasi had ever been treated with a shred of kindness.

A person couldn’t show humanity if they’d never experienced it. Unfortunately, that revelation didn’t fill me with excitement. It meant I’d have to be the example for the guardian and force others to do the same when interacting with him. Something told me Lucas wouldn’t take part in that plan.

In the meantime, another idea struck me.

“I need to talk to Charlie, be back in a minute,” I told Lucas.

He gave me a quizzical look.

“I thought of a way to get rid of our interloper for a couple of hours,” I explained.

“Don’t be long,” he said, releasing his hold on my neck. I missed his hand the minute it left me.

Charlie was inside the kitchen supervising Emily and Hunter, who were preparing snacks and drinks for after the meeting. I got the shaman’s attention and waved him over to where I stood by the stairs.

“Do you mind if I have Kerbasi watch a movie in the living room so he’ll be occupied while we’re out there planning?” I asked.

He lifted a bushy brow. “Which movie?”

The shaman had a surprisingly large collection.

I grinned. “Old Yeller.”

“I like your way of thinking.” He nodded. “I’ll get the movie ready if you want to send him inside.”

“Thanks,” I said before heading out the door.

Kerbasi was standing over by the garage, but he noticed me as soon as I came out. I beckoned him over and was surprised at how quickly he moved my way until I saw Kariann coming at him from another direction. He must have figured I was the lesser of two evils.

“Have you ever watched a movie before?” I asked once he reached the porch steps.

“A movie?” His forehead creased in confusion.

I was guessing he hadn’t.

“Well, you’re about to get your first experience with one of the most important inventions in modern technology.” Aside from the internet and cars, of course. He’d been eyeing the vehicles coming and going with a mixture of fear and curiosity, though he hadn’t asked about them yet. I had no plans to let him near a computer for awhile.

I pulled him inside the house and took him to the living room. Charlie already had the movie ready to go.

“Sit,” I ordered Kerbasi, pointing at the couch closest to the television.

“Since this might be a little disturbing for him, I’m going to explain a few rules first. You can go on outside, Melena.” Charlie waved me off.

That was probably a good idea. If the guardian decided the television was a threat he might try to attack it. Charlie wouldn’t want his huge flat screen getting destroyed over a minor misunderstanding.

“Listen to what he says.” I pointed at the guardian.

He was already staring at the screen in horror. Too bad I’d miss seeing his reaction to the actual movie.

I headed outside and found Lucas had moved down the porch to the corner of the house. He had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. No surprise there. Nik nodded at me as I passed him along the way. The master vampire looked ready to begin.

“I need everyone’s attention,” he called out.

I rushed to Lucas’ side, wanting to stay away from the limelight for as long as possible.

A hush fell over the crowd and everyone turned to face the porch. It was like déjà vu from the time when we’d planned to take down Variola, except at a different house. That, and we didn’t have a shape-shifter cat back then who suddenly ran through the crowd. It might not have been that bad, but Sable had decided to turn into a large tiger and inadvertently knocked down a person or two along her path.

When she reached me, I ordered the cat to sit and gave Nik an apologetic smile. He just shook his head at me. It wasn’t like it was my fault he decided to start his meeting this close to Sable’s dinnertime. I petted her head and whispered that she’d have to wait. Lucas continued to stand stiffly, though he nodded at Fallon when the vampire joined us. There was still tension between the two of them.

“Now, as you know,” Nik began, “we are missing more than a few people tonight. It’s time we get them back and recover our city.”

Everyone murmured their agreement.

We were actually missing about ninety people—over half of them vamps with some fae and werewolves mixed in as well. I hadn’t covered enough of the city to figure out where Zoe had confined them. We’d gone out on a recon the day before, but didn’t have any luck. Zoe had pulled in her guard, abandoning the outskirts of Fairbanks, so the sensors were a lot closer than before. I couldn’t sneak through the lines as easily anymore.

Nik ran his gaze across the crowd. “We must work together if we’re to make this happen. Most of you were with me during the battle with Variola. You should know this could turn into an even more difficult operation than that unless we find a way to minimize losses. Today we will discuss ideas on how to do that.”

I stifled a yawn and looked at Lucas. He didn’t appear to be paying any attention, but with him looks could be deceiving. I turned my attention back to the crowd and saw a mixture of expressions on people’s faces. Many showed glimmers of their fear, but they also showed determination. That was all we really needed. People willing to do whatever it took to rid ourselves of our occupiers.

Nik finally finished his speech and asked for suggestions. A lot of people just gave him blank looks. I couldn’t blame them since trying to take down an immortal we couldn’t kill made things slightly more difficult. It was time for me to step up, whether I liked the limelight or not. No one was going to come up with a decent idea until they had a little more to work with.

I grabbed my bag where I’d put it on the porch earlier. Then I stepped into the porch light close to Nik. He looked at me and raised his brows.

I gave him a brief smile before facing the crowd. “When you have a force as large and devoted as the one we face, the trick is to take down the leader. We need to target Zoe specifically and do whatever it takes to capture her.”

“How do we do that if we can’t kill her?” someone in the back of the crowd asked.

“She’s too powerful,” another person yelled.

I opened my bag and pulled out the chains I’d taken from Purgatory. Then I lifted them up.

“These chains bind an immortal’s powers so they can’t use magic. They also take their strength. We need to formulate a plan so that we can get them on her. If she’s taken out of the battle, her people will lose their motivation to fight.”

Nik furrowed his brows as he stared at them. It wasn’t until his gaze moved over to Lucas’ direction that I saw the master vampire had put two and two together. He gave me a nod of approval.

“Melena has provided an excellent suggestion. Now we must find a way to separate the leader from her flock.” He looked over the crowd once more for suggestions.

I cleared my throat. “She knows we have the fae artifact. Maybe the best thing to do is make her think we’re willing to trade it for her leaving Fairbanks.”

Bambi stepped forward. “Ya can’t be thinkin’ ta give it back ta her. It belongs to the fae!”

“Of course not,” I reassured her. “But even mentioning we’re willing to negotiate might be enough to draw her out of Fairbanks.”

The troll backed down, temporarily mollified.

Nik rubbed his chin. “She’ll have to keep the bulk of her forces in Fairbanks for fear we’ll try to rescue more of our people and take the town while she’s away. At the very least, this will split her forces. That may be just enough for us to get an edge on her.”

“Okay.” Derrick stepped forward. “But how do we know the fae artifact will be enough to draw her out? She has to know meetin’ with us will put her in a weaker position.”

Lucas came up behind me. “I have every confidence that if she thinks there’s even a remote possibility of getting the artifact back, she’ll take it.”

I gave him a questioning glance, but he shook his head. The hard look he gave everyone else kept them from asking. He’d spent a year in Purgatory with her, so he must have learned something during that time that helped him understand her motivations.

Nik leaned over and whispered in his ear. “We will be discussing this later.”

Lucas gave him a “we’ll see” look that made me think the discussion wouldn’t go far.

Josslyn, who’d been standing in the sidelines up to this point, finally worked up the courage to speak. “Let’s say we do send a message requesting Zoe meet with us. Who would take that message?”

“She has a point,” Derrick agreed. “There’s a strong possibility anyone who gets near her guards will be taken.”

Nik turned his attention back to Lucas. “Could you flash in to speak with her?”

I’d forgotten about that, though it should have occurred to me sooner.

“No,” Lucas said, hardening his jaw. “I’ve already attempted to meet with her, but she’s warded the hotel against me—most likely using something from my brother to furnish the spell.”

Damn. She really had locked down since we’d last moved in on her if she was using Micah’s identical DNA to keep Lucas out.

“I could take the note and drop it off at the front desk,” Cori said from somewhere in the crowd.

I’d forgotten she was here with so many sups overwhelming my senses. We’d told her about the meeting time a couple days ago, but it had slipped my mind that she would probably come.

“Are you sure you can get in and out without raising suspicion?” Nik asked.

She put her hands on her hips. “I did it before, didn’t I?”

He gave her a skeptical look. “There’s no guarantee you won’t get caught this time. Are you sure you’re willing to take the risk?”

“I’m sure.” She spoke with confidence.

“Then we can move on to the finer details and decide on a time and location. I’m open to suggestions.”

This time when he looked across the crowd searching for responses, no one had a problem speaking up.

Chapter Forty-three

“I don’t think I can fight in this battle, Nik.” The female voice drifted over to me from down the hallway. It was Josslyn.

“If you truly don’t feel you can handle it, then stay here.” I could feel his disappointment with her, but also his concern.

“There are things you don’t know about…” she paused, “these past few centuries have been difficult for me.”

Her pain pushed strongly at my senses. I wondered what could have happened to a vampire as old as her to be so traumatic. She wasn’t as strong as she should have been for her age. Each vamp’s power rose at a slightly different rate, but hers was oddly at the level of someone a couple centuries younger.

I’d tried talking to her once after we’d gotten back from the fae city, but she’d muttered some excuse and rushed off to hide in her room. We’d shuttered all the windows in the house against the sun so vamps could move about freely at all times—though it was a bit tricky when opening the front door—but she still preferred to sit alone. About the only time she left the house at all was when she and Nik went to feed at night. I didn’t ask where they went for that.

“It would help if you talked about what happened to you,” Nik said soothingly.

“I…I just can’t. Maybe someday, but not yet.”

He sighed. “I’ll let this go for now, but you will have to tell me eventually.”

“I will,” she replied. Some kissing noises came after that.

I crept past their partially-open bedroom door and made my way down the stairs, skipping the two steps that tended to creak. Something was up with Josslyn, but I couldn’t figure out what it might be. She seemed genuine enough in her feelings and behavior. It was just her elusiveness that bugged me—and probably Nik too.

Emily and Hunter were outside. I found them sitting on the porch swing with Emily’s feet in his lap—he was rubbing them. At some point I had to acknowledge that the two of them were getting closer. It wasn’t that I purposely ignored them, but that I had so many things on my mind already and dealing with a teenage romance just seemed beyond me. Plus it had to be hard on Hunter with his father being held hostage by Zoe.

They exchanged secretive looks when I walked up, but those quickly turned into annoyance when I put Emily’s legs down and sat between them.