Foreshadowed (7 page)

CHAPTER 13

            Once we arrived in France, I found myself stepping into yet another lavish hotel room. This time I was overwhelmed, not with the excitement of a belated honeymoon, but with a sense of foreboding that I couldn't seem to shake. I wasn't sure if it was the visions I'd had or some kind of sixth sense that left me with the feeling that something incredibly bad was going to happen. I tried to assure myself that Alex and Ethan were both very capable of taking on Lucien and anyone else that stood in their way, but it did little to ease my slowly growing fears.

            I walked over to the table where a pot of tea and cookies had been sat out. Pouring myself a cup, I then wandered over to the window to look down at the busy street below. I tuned out the hum of Alex and Ethan still talking in the hallway outside. I could easily have heard every word they were saying, but it seemed like a pointless endeavor considering I was supposed to sit in the hotel room while the entire rescue took place. I simply didn’t want to know what their game plan was to get Anna back-- not if I wasn’t included. I was sure there were things it entailed that I'd find too risky and knowing those things would make it entirely too hard to sit in here waiting. I was staring unseeingly out at the people down on the street, sipping my tea, when a familiar blonde head caught my eye, pulling me out of my thoughts. My eyes narrowed as they followed the man making his way down the crowded sidewalk towards the Hotel Lutetia where we were staying. Determined to prove what my mind was already claiming, my vision focused sharply on the form below; and within seconds I had proven myself right. I would know him anywhere, even with the spiky hairstyle and dark clothing. There was no doubt about it-- Brad was in France.

            I gasped, almost dropping my teacup and causing several drops to splash onto the carpet. The door to the room was thrown open behind me, and Alex and Ethan strode quickly in, there expressions alert and their eyes scanning the room, looking for whatever had startled me. I hurried closer to the window. Looking desperately at the sidewalk below, I could find no trace of Brad anywhere.

            I turned slowly around to face Alex and Ethan. Judging from the look on his face, Alex had already dug into my mind and discovered what had startled me. His jaw was tight and his hands were clenched into fists.

            "You have
got
to be kidding me," Alex growled.

            Ethan, looking more than a little annoyed, said dryly, "Care to let me in on what's going on?"

            "Yes, please do fill us in,” a deep voice drawled out from the doorway. We turned to see Brad saunter in, clothed in his usual edgy attire. Apparently, my eyes had not deceived me.

            "Oh lovely," I said. "Just when you think things can't get anymore complicated-- you show up."

            Brad smiled at me. "Nice to see you, too."

            He looked over to where Ethan had plopped down and kicked back on the sitting room sofa, apparently with plans to enjoy what was sure to be quite a show between Alex and Brad. Brad gave Ethan a smile that was anything but that and said, "Well, if it isn't the vampire that's got his eye on yet another innocent human girl. Why is it you bloodsuckers can't stick to your own kind; but insist on taking perfectly good girls and turning them into monsters?"

            Ethan didn't have time to respond to Brad's jab before Alex had moved with blinding speed across the room and tossed Brad effortlessly through the air, sending him crashing into the porcelain tea set I'd been using. A couple of silent seconds passed where I was sure Brad was unconscious before he finally sat up, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and a spot on the side of his temple. A wry grin was on his face.

            Not taking his eyes off of Brad, Alex said to me, "Look sweetie, someone sent dinner up." I smelled the salty metallic scent of Brad's blood, but it wasn't bothering me at all. Clearly, Alex was just giving Brad a hard time. Brad stood up wiping the blood coming from his mouth on the sleeve of his black jacket. "Well, that's no way to treat someone who's traveled thousands of miles to help you."

            Alex let out a short bark of laughter. "Help us? You must be delusional. We don't need your help."

            "Well, need it or not, you're getting it. Anna's been a friend of mine since childhood and I don't trust the two of you to free her
and
allow her to remain human. I'm here to ensure that's exactly what happens. You've gotten to Brooke already, but I'm not going to let you get to Anna."

            "Let us?" Alex scoffed, laughing. "I find that funny, actually. But, you know what? If you want to go with us, then have at it. Maybe they'll be distracted by their next meal walking in, and Ethan and I can get Anna out even more easily. Because that's what you'll become if you go-- some vampire's next meal. But, hey, if it saves me from having to get rid of you myself; then by all means..."

            Brad glared at Alex and said with deceptive calmness, "
I
can take care of myself, but I
am
going with you to get Anna-- just so we're clear."

            Ethan stood up. "Yeah, yeah everyone's clear. We're going to go get Anna and you're going to get yourself killed. Okay, now that that's settled, let's get going."

            I sighed in frustration as they closed the door behind them. Not only would I be extremely relieved to see Anna again, I would also be desperately happy not to be the only female in a group of competitive males.

            I glanced at my watch. It was eight o'clock at night in Paris and I potentially had hours to kill before I would see them, and hopefully Anna, again.
What in the world could I do to take my mind off of the fact that they were walking into a virtual snakes nest?

            Nervous energy pulsed through me and I drummed my darkly polished nails on the end table next to the sofa I'd perched on. My gaze fell on the mess of broken dishes on the floor and I inwardly groaned at having to explain
that
to the hotel staff. I stood up, going over to the table where the phone sat, and dialed for the front desk. A man answered in almost perfect English and I was more than a little relieved to hear him speaking the only language I understood. Alex must have stopped off at the front desk to warn them that I didn't speak French. It sounded like something he would do. He was always thinking ahead like that. Maybe one day I would learn to speak the French language as beautifully as Alex, but I doubted it. There was no telling how many languages he spoke. Already Alex had spoken to me in both French and Russian and it had been absolutely captivating to listen to. Some of the most heart stopping things that'd come out of Alex's mouth had been in French; and I found that even though I couldn't understand the language, I'd fallen in love with it. But then again, Alex had the kind of appeal that made almost anything he said captivating to a girl.

            Hearing my phone beep alerting me to a new text message, I walked over to the table by the window where I'd left it and began scrolling through the messages. A sharp knock sounded behind me and the door opened. A male voice with a strong foreign accent said, "I was sent by the front desk to clean up an accident."

CHAPTER 14

            There had been times in my life that had made me question reality. Times that had caused me to say,
Can this
really
be
happening?
Sometimes the lines between reality and nightmare were so blurred you just couldn‘t decide.
And this very moment was, without a doubt, one of those times. In fact, this particular moment may have topped the chart of unbelievable moments. Because the first blurry image I saw when I opened my eyes was the
exact
image that I had seen in my vision several nights before.

            As I turned my head on the stone floor, my cheek coming in contact with cold concrete, I saw something that made my stomach drop. I choked back a scream when my vision cleared enough for me to see Anna's pale blonde hair matted to her head, sticky with dried blood. I sucked in a sharp breath when my eyes fell on the numerous bite marks, some scabbed over and some fresh, that marred almost every area of her exposed skin. Still too woozy to sit up, I watched her intently for any sign that she was still alive. It took several long seconds before I caught the very slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

            "Anna," I rasped out. My voice was thick with the drug I'd been subjected to and I almost didn't recognize it.

            The only response I got back was a small whimper.

           
Oh God. This was bad. Very bad.
As I tried telepathically to reach Alex, I hit the same invisible block that I'd hit when I was being held by the Regency. It seemed Lucien had been planning well--
if
that was who had taken me; and I had a feeling it was.

            I tried moving my fingers and toes and was relieved to feel the sluggish return of movement to my body. My arms and legs felt heavy, but I was slowly gaining control over them. I was unsuccessfully attempting to sit up when I heard the sound of stone on stone as a door scraped open. Light footsteps walked towards me and after a couple of tries, I was able to turn my head towards the sound. What I saw was a slight framed vampire girl with dark hair and large, golden eyes. She appeared to be in her upper teens or early twenties and despite our surroundings, she seemed pleasant enough. That thought was reaffirmed when she kneeled next to me and said softly, "Brooke, my name is Kathryn. Your father has sent me here to work for Lucien, but I have actually been here to report information back to him and Alex. No matter how it appears, I promise you, I’m on your side."

            One thing that I prided myself on was knowing intuitively who was genuine and who was full of it. It was something I had always been good at. And I immediately sensed her to be trustworthy. I swallowed in an attempt to wet my throat, and asked, "Where am I?"

            “At Lucien's house," she responded, but she kept glancing back at the doorway to make sure no one was coming.

            I looked to Anna questioningly. "What did he do to her?"

            Kathryn's eyes moved to look at Anna sympathetically. "She's had a rough go of it. Lucien's sent someone to feed from her every hour since you were informed that he'd taken her. I heard him telling someone that it would be your incentive to get here."

            I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the guilt I felt that Anna had suffered because of me. But that had been his plan all along-- to guilt me into coming to him. As it was, his backup plan seemed to be working nicely.

            "You have
got
to get her out of here," I whispered, looking at Kathryn pleadingly. I was certain that once the drug wore off, I could free myself. My main concern was not just that Anna would die before she could get help, but that Alex, Ethan and Brad would lose it and do something stupid when they realized that Lucien had us both-- and I couldn't let that happen.

            Struggling to sit up, this time successfully, I asked Kathryn, "Where is Lucien now? Can you get Anna out of here before he comes back?"

            Kathryn bit her lip and I could tell she was worried. "I wish I could, and I've tried, but Anna’s too weak and the smell of her blood is so strong that I would never get her away before we were captured."

            We both froze when we heard the heavy fall of footsteps heading steadily toward us. Kathryn stood quickly and walked towards the door-- I assumed so that she wouldn't appear to be fraternizing with the enemy. I was glad she was being cautious. It wouldn’t do either of us any good if Lucien suspected she was not what she appeared to be. Feeling a slowly burning anger bubbling up from within me, I prepared myself to deal with whoever burst through the door. I glanced at Anna who had remained motionless and who's heart I could hear barely keeping a steady beat. She'd lost entirely too much blood and I knew she wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. At this point, I worried that even if Alex and Ethan walked through the door in the next minute, it might be too late to save her.