Descendant (25 page)

“…Yeah.”

“So you fought for him.”

He threw me an irritated glance. “I was the best general he had in that whole damn army,” he said under his breath as he shoved past me. We’d come to a fork in the tunnel, and he studied both sides for a second before nodding to the right. “This way,” he said.

“The ones in the woods,” I said suddenly, hurrying after him.

“They all listened to you. And you brought me here…how…”

My eyes widened as the realization hit me. “You…you’re still fighting for him, aren’t you?”

He cut his eyes sideways at me. “Hopefully they all still think that, too,” he said smugly. “But like I said earlier, I think Valkos is starting to catch on. Some of the others too—like Markus. Not that we have to worry about him anymore.”

“But you live with Eli, and Will , and Vanessa…how did you…”

“That was supposedly an undercover operation.”

“So you’ve been lying to them. To everybody.”

“I did what I had to do, Alex. And I promise it wil all make sense—when I get the chance to explain. But storytime’s going to have to wait, because right now we’ve got other things to worry about.” He stopped and felt along the wall for a minute, until his hand fell on what looked like a metal ladder. “This is our stop,” he said.

I stared uncertainly at the ladder and didn’t move.

“I’m on your side,” he said quietly.

“How do I know that isn’t just another one of your lies?”

“Up this ladder is an empty storage room. And just down the hall from it is the room where they’re keeping your sister.”

My stomach gave a funny little lurch. I stared at him, mouth open slightly in disbelief. “I swear to God…if you’re lying to me right now… I swear I’ll …” I couldn’t even think of a strong enough threat.

“There’s only one way to find out,” he muttered, glancing up the ladder.

My eyes narrowed. “Fine,” I said, stepping toward the ladder. I placed a hand on either side of it and started to hoist myself up. But the second I put pressure on my wrist a sharp pain shot up my arm, and I stumbled and fell back against Kael, who looked down at me with a worried look.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I grumbled. “It’s just my wrist. It’s not a big deal.” I started to reach for the ladder again, but Kael stopped me.

He stepped in front of me and lifted both of my wrists so he could compare them side by side.

“It’s not that bad,” I said impatiently.

“The one on the left is about twice the size of the other one.

I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure that’s not okay.”

“I’ll tough it out,” I said, vainly attempting to shove my way around him.

“Did Markus do that to you?” he asked.

“Did Markus do that to you?” he asked.

I shrugged. “It could’ve been worse.”

“I should’ve put a few more bullets in him,” Kael said, looking back like he was thinking about going and doing it.

“Yeah, well maybe you can do that later,” I muttered, final y managing to slip around him.

“Hang on,” Kael said, putting a hand on my shoulder and stopping me again just as my foot hit the bottom rung. “It’s a long way to the top.” Before I could argue back, he suddenly grabbed me and literal y threw me over his shoulder.

“What the hel do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m carrying you. Deal with it.”

“You know, I would say this is heroic of you, but for some reason it just strikes me as more barbaric than anything else. Only you forgot to club me over the head first.”

“Keep it up and I might just do that.”

“You would.”

“Just shut up and hold on.”

I obeyed, but only because he shot up that ladder so quick I didn’t even have a chance to think about doing anything else. It might’ve been a long way to the top, but we scaled it in no time at all . Once we reached the top, Kael placed a palm on the solid looking ceiling and shoved. The stone moved and light flooded in, blinding me for a second. Kael pushed the door the rest of the way over and we climbed up and into the empty room. I jumped off his back as quick as I could and followed him to the door.

He glanced up and down the hallway a few times, and then motioned for me to follow. We moved quietly until we reached an adjacent hall , where Kael stopped and turned back to me.

“Your sister’s at the end of this hall ,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pul ing out a handful of silver bul ets. My hands flew to my ears, trying to block out the buzzing as I watched him mess with the gun. “These aren’t just coated—they’re pure silver,” he said.

“Does that not give you a headache?” I asked.

“You get used to it after a couple centuries,” he said with a half-smile, roll ing the now loaded chamber shut and handing the gun to me. “Here. Just in case.”

I took it with shaking hands. “What am I supposed to do with this?” I asked.

“Aim it? Fire it? That’s what I would do—considering it’s a gun, you know?”

“I know what it is, smart ass—”

“But you don’t have a lot of bul ets, so don’t get too crazy.”

“I’ve never fired a gun in my life,” I told him.

“Well in that case, make sure you don’t aim at anything close to me,” he said offhand, glancing around the corner as he spoke. Then he turned back and fixed me with a serious stare. “Okay. I’ll be right back. You stay right here and don’t—”

“What? No way…I’m coming with you!”

“Could you be any louder?” he asked, looking anxiously around the corner again. “And no, you’re not coming with me,” he added in a strangled whisper. “Your sister’s not alone in there, and I’m going to have a hard enough time convincing whoever’s standing guard to let me take her. If you’re with me it’s obviously going to look a lot more suspicious.”

“But I—”

“Hopefully this won’t take long. There’s a tunnel that leads outside in the last room on the right down there,” he pointed towards the end of the hall . “If I’m not back in ten minutes, or if it sounds like things are going badly, you take it and don’t look back. Got it?”

“Kael, I’m not going to—”

“Actual y, maybe you should just wait for me near that tunnel?”

“I won’t know what’s going on. I won’t—”

“If you do stay here, don’t talk to anybody, and don’t go wandering off. If you need to hide, I think most of the rooms along this wing are unlocked, and if you—”

“Okay. I get it,” I final y snapped, throwing up my hands in frustration. He obviously wasn’t paying attention to anything I was saying, and we were wasting time here. “Will you just hurry up and go and get back already?”

He nodded but didn’t move.

“What is it?” I asked.

His eyes were boring into mine, a torn look on his face.

“Just…I’m serious about what I said. If you need to get out —get out.”

“I know.”

“I probably shouldn’t have brought you in here—” “It’s okay.”

“—but if I hadn’t, then—”

“Kael?” My voice was a little louder than I meant for it to be.

Both of us took a second to check the hallways nervously, then I bent closer and spoke in a harsh whisper: “Why are you still standing here? If you don’t go get my sister, I’m going to.”

“Right.” He started to turn away, but hesitated one last time.

“Just…please don’t do anything reckless,” he said.

Before I could help myself, I gave him a small smile. “You know I can’t promise that,” I said.

He frowned, but didn’t say anything else, and in another minute he was gone.

Save for me, the hall was completely empty now that Kael was gone. Which was good, I guess, but it was also making me uneasy—because it didn’t make sense for it to be like this. If Valkos’ forces real y were growing, then where were all the people who should’ve been standing in our way?

Surely he had a few extra guards to spare for Lora? Had Kael put bul et holes in them, and stashed them in random rooms too? My eyes fell on a nearby door.

I wasn’t about to open it and check.

I paced up and down the hall for a few minutes, jumping at every little noise—and at some I’m pretty sure I imagined.

Every now and then my gaze wandered down the hall , towards the room Kael had disappeared into. I tried not to let it, but a cynical thought was already creeping its way into my mind, growing stronger and stronger with every second Kael stayed out of sight: what if he didn’t know what he was doing? The empty hall s hadn’t seemed to bother him, but to me it just felt weird, like something too good to be true.

Like it was a trap.

My pacing final y came to a stop at the base of a one of several paintings hanging along the hall . It was so big that the frame almost grazed the ceiling. I wiped my sweaty palms off on the sleeves of my sweatshirt and gazed up into the face of a woman painted with expert brushstrokes. Her hauntingly blue eyes were staring straight ahead, and a kind smile graced her pale pink lips. Her waist-length blonde hair fell in loose ringlets that rested in the folds of a simple blue dress the same color as her eyes. Impossibly green fields flowed out behind her and gave the painting an otherworldly quality about it. The whole thing was mesmerizing—but it was her eyes that were holding my attention when, after at least a minute a gazing, I heard a sudden voice behind me.

“Beautiful, wasn’t she?”

I spun around and quickly flashed a fake smile. The old man behind me looked harmless enough, and my finger—which had found the trigger of my gun quickly—relaxed a little.

“Yes…yes she was.” I did my best to sound normal. But I’m pretty sure my breathing—rapid and shall ow—was already giving me away. I swallowed hard. “You knew her?” I asked.

“She was my wife,” the old man said.

I have to admit—it was hard to imagine him with someone so beautiful. For one thing, he had to have been several feet shorter than her; he was only an inch or two taller than me. I guess back then he probably had a full head of hair, unlike now when he had nothing but a beard, still mostly brown but flecked with bits of grey in places. His face might’ve been a handsome one when he was younger too, but now wrinkles had started creeping underneath his eyes and were spreading their way across his forehead, and while one of his eyes was a brilliant shade of blue, the other was a milky white.

He stepped to my side, his blue eye looking up and down the portrait of his wife while the white eye stayed eerily still .

He reached his right hand up and laid it gently across the painted version of his wife’s. His left arm stayed at his side, and it had a slight tremor. The only reason I noticed it, I think, was that my grandpa had suffered from the same thing.

For a long time we stood, he silently revering the painting while I tried to decide whether or not I should make a run for it. It was true—he did look harmless. If he tried to make a move, I probably could’ve tripped him and he would’ve fallen and broken both his hips. But I was so paranoid at this point that even lonely little old men were starting to look like assassins in disguise.

“Are you lost?” he asked.

“Lost?” I repeated, startled by the sudden question. “No…I just…”

Did I look that lost? Did I look that obviously out of place?

“Why do you ask?”

He didn’t take his eyes off the painting as he spoke. “I was just wondering if maybe you got separated from the others,”

he said quietly.

“Others?” Without thinking, my finger started itching for the trigger again.

He final y looked away from the painting then, and his gaze paused briefly on my gun before he looked up, staring directly into my eyes for the first time. He nodded, the corners of his mouth curling into a sinister smile.

“I didn’t expect you to be alone.”

I took a step back, panic gripping me.

“Don’t run,” he said. He spoke in a near-whisper, but somehow his words still seemed to echo loudly through the hall . “You don’t want to make things hard on this old man, do you?”

“Who are you?” I demanded. “And why were you expecting me at all ?”

“You know who I am. And I know more about you than you do yourself, so why don’t we just skip the introductions for now? I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time —so I’d rather we just cut to the chase, if it’s all the same to you.”

He started to close the distance between us, but I lifted the gun with shaky hands until the barrel of it bumped against gun with shaky hands until the barrel of it bumped against his chest. He stopped then, glancing down at it with an amused look.

“You know, they say you shouldn’t aim a gun at anything you don’t intend to kill .”

“How do you know I don’t intend to kill you?”

“For one thing, I know you’ve never shot a gun before in your life—at something living, or otherwise. You can’t pul the trigger, because you can’t stop thinking about how you’re not a kill er. And even if you were, you know better than to shoot me.”

My hands were shaking so hard, and they were so covered in sweat by this point that it was a miracle I managed to not drop the gun. “What are you talking about?” I asked in a single, panicky breath. But he knew what he was talking about. We both did—because I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t even try to block my thoughts from him.

“I’ve got something you want. You and I both know that.” I shook my head, mouthing a silent ‘no’, but he continued: “If you did shoot me, then what would become of your dear little sister?”

He grabbed the gun and pushed it aside, and I couldn’t bring myself to point it at him again.

“That’s better,” he said. “Now maybe we can talk like civilized adults?”

“Where is she?” I asked, the gun hanging limply at my side.

“I thought you might like to see her.” As he spoke he nodded towards whatever was behind me; at first I couldn’t bring myself to turn and see what. But then I heard a voice, half-way between a cry and a squeak, say my name. I knew that voice. But I still didn’t want to turn around, terrified of what I might see. When she said my name again though, I couldn’t help myself.

“Lora…” I whispered.

She was alive. In one piece. I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief—even though this wasn’t exactly the tearful, joyous reunion I’d been hoping for. There were two men I didn’t recognize, one on either side of Lora, holding her up, holding her in place. Her posture was slumped, her expression lifeless. She looked like she might’ve been drugged. If those men weren’t holding her up, I had a feeling she would’ve col apsed to the floor by now. I wanted to run to her, to throw my arms around her and tell her everything was going to be okay now. It was a lie. But I wanted to say it anyway.

“Ah…and there you are, Kael. I had a feeling I’d find you here. And as you can see—Alexandra is already here as well . It’s a fortunate coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”

I jumped when Valkos said Kael’s name. I wish he hadn’t said it. Because now I had to look. I had to see the only thing that could’ve made this moment any worse than it already was.

There were two people on either side of Kael, too; but there was also a third person, and he was holding a gun to Kael’s head. Kael’s expression was just as stoic as ever. Mine was not.

“You look upset, Alexandra.”

I turned back to Valkos. He was smiling again. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

“I thought you would be happy to see them? I’m sorry I couldn’t reunite you with your other friends—I’m afraid they left before you got here.” His lips rolled back into a small snarl. “You have Kael to thank for that.”

A gunshot. I jerked around. Kael was on his knees, his breathing heavy and obvious, his eyes closed. I started to run towards him, but I’d only made it a few strides before run towards him, but I’d only made it a few strides before Valkos seemed to materialize out of nowhere. I collied with him and stumbled back. Before I even regained my balance completely I’d drawn my gun and pointed it at his throat.

“Let them go,” I managed to choke out.

“I can’t do that just yet,” he said, his eyes focused intently on the gun. At first, his concentration on it was reassuring. I thought I had him worried. But then I felt a sharp, burning pain in my wrist, and soon it shot all the way up my arms, which started to shake so violently I dropped the gun. It hit the ground with a clang! that reverberated through the hall s.

I couldn’t bend to pick it up. My arms felt like they were on fire.

“I need you to do me a favor first,” Valkos said, crouching down and picking up my gun. He turned it around in his hands, looking it over as he continued: “You see, Alexandra, a long time ago your Grandfather Cyrus—an otherwise brilliant lycan—had a small lapse in judgment, and he created a certain pact. You might have heard of it?”

He looked up at me expectantly, and the pain in my arms started to fade.

I managed a nod.

“And I assume you also know of your role—as the only one who can dissolve it.”

“I might have heard about it.”

“So you know, then, that quite an opportunity lies before you. You could be the one to erase the bonds that have been holding our kind down for centuries.”

I shook my head. “Not our kind. Your kind,” I said quietly.

“I’m not like you.”

“Maybe not. I can already tell you’re a lot like Cyrus, though.

He wouldn’t have wanted our race to suffer like it has. If he were here today—”

“He’s not here,” I interrupted.

“No, no I suppose he’s not.” Valkos smiled patiently. “So let’s forget about Cyrus for a minute then, and let me put it to you in terms you might understand a little better: either you cooperate, or these two—and everyone else you care about—wil pay the consequences.”

“Don’t listen to him, Alex,” Kael interrupted suddenly.

“Shut-up, boy.” In one fluid motion Valkos abandoned me and had the gun cocked and pointed at Kael. “I’m starting to lose my patience with you.”

“If you kill him I’m not doing you any favors,” I said quickly, throwing an anxious look at the gun. Valkos’ arm dropped a few inches.

“Oh?” He glanced back over his shoulder at me. “Not even if there’s still your sister left to save?” His arm swung sideways, so that his aim was redirected to Lora.

Without thinking, I threw myself on his arm, knocking us both off-balance. My hands grabbed the gun. He didn’t put up much of a fight, and I managed to wrestle it from his grasp easily enough. I staggered backwards, cursing under my breath.

“Look,” I said, positioning myself between him and Lora. I had the gun back, but my heart kept right on pounding.

Something told me he didn’t real y need that gun, anyway.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said. “But only if you let them go —both of them.”

“Don’t be stupid, Alex!” Kael said.

I ignored him.

“I have every intention of doing so,” Valkos said pleasantly.

“The second you willingly—”

“The second you willingly—”

“No,” I said, surprised by my own audacity. My voice trembled only slightly as I continued: “No—you let them go first. Then I’ll do whatever you want. But not before.”

The corner of Valkos’ one good eye gave a small twitch.

“And what reason have I to believe that you’ll keep your word?” he asked.

“…You don’t have a choice,” I said flatly. “Either I watch them walk away, or I’m not willingly doing anything for you.”

A look of concentration passed over his face. He was probably trying to read my thoughts, I decided. Hopefully, it wouldn’t do him any good—considering I didn’t understand, or even know, what was going through my head myself right now. He studied me for a minute or so longer, then his lips parted into a small smile. “Okay. They walk. But you stay with me.”

“Alex!” Lora’s voice cracked before she even got my whole name out. “You can’t!”

I didn’t turn and look at her. I couldn’t—I knew that seeing her pleading eyes would’ve been all it took to change my mind. And there was no way I could turn back now. I couldn’t stare at Valkos either, though; his pressing stare made the weight on my chest unbearable. So instead I stared through him, so that my gaze focused on the painting of his wife that was behind him. Her eyes were so kind, and even in their stillness they were lifelike and reassuring. They reminded me of my mom’s.

Mom. I had to make sure Lora got back to her. I had to make sure those two had each other. So I met Valkos’

gaze briefly, and I nodded.

“I stay.”

“No!”

Another gunshot. I turned, fearing the worst, but it wasn’t Kael on the ground this time. Instead, the man who’d been pointing the gun at Kael was lying on his back, the gun pointing at the ceiling. There was a small hole in the ceiling, and dust was pouring out of it while chips of sheetrock scattered to the floor. The man lying on the ground didn’t move, and now that Kael didn’t have the gun to worry about it only took him another second to throw off the other two holding him back.