Shattered Skies: Beginning's End (22 page)

“Cat stop it!!”
a voice hissed in my ear… shit he knew my name. I was as good as dead anyway, so using every ounce of anger I was feeling, I threw my body sideways and kicked up, striking the person that had me around the waist right in his nose. The last thing I saw before everything went black was scattered blood flying from the beast’s face.

“Cat wake up! You have to wake up now.” Darien’s voice drifted through my consciousness. After the initial confusion wore off, I realized that it had all been a dream. Everyone was safe and Dr. Walker was no more a monster than I was. I
hadn’t hurt Jewel. We were still hidden and safe. It was all just a bad dream; a very, very bad dream.

I forced my eyes open, hardly being able to wait to fill Darien in on the nightmare so we could sit and have a laugh about it. If my bet it was all a dream was right then Darien was probably waking me up with pizza
and a movie. I loved him. Akia the monster was nothing more than a fragment of my imagination. Darien would call me a loser; we would laugh, and snuggle under a blanket all night and that would be it. Maybe I would ask Dr. Walker to pull me from the front line for a while. Maybe I could settle down and help Jewel with the baby. That would be great. Aunt Cat sounds so awesome.  I was smiling when I opened my eyes. Much to my surprise when I looked around I wasn’t home or safe in my room. I was lying on the hard ground in the dark and damp with Darien’s bruised worried face staring down into my own.

“What happened to your face?” my voice sounded unfamiliar to me, like the words were coming out of someone else’s lips.

“Cat you kicked his ass don’t you remember? I had to knock you out to save his sorry butt ‘cause he wouldn’t fight you back.” Jaden was standing on the other side of me, looking down at me with the same look as Darien. 

“Guys, what is going on here? Where is everyone else?” As soon as
I said the words, the memories flooded into my head. I saw Dr. Walker chained to the wall, just standing there while they accused him of being one of the monsters, just standing there instead of defending himself and telling them they were wrong. Quickly, I flashed to another picture; a picture that would never leave my mind as long as I lived. Jewel was facing me, the trust in her eyes boring guilty holes through my soul. I was her savior. I was going to make everything right. I was going to free her from the evil monsters and take her home. 

“Oh my God………. I killed her…… I promised her that I was going to save her from them and she believed me. She looked at me like I was her hero, and I killed her.”

It was me talking but it didn't seem like me. I wasn't babbling and I wasn't screaming; I was using the cold disconnected voice that seemed to have made itself at home in my body. It was my voice that made me feel the coldest, I think. I was talking about murder. I had killed her and she wasn't a monster, she was a sister, or the closest thing that I would ever have to one and I had killed her with my own hands. I was talking about it like I had seen it in a movie. Even I knew enough to know this wasn’t good. Once again, there was a hand covering my mouth. It wasn’t Darien’s but instead Jaden’s. I gripped onto his arm like it was the last real thing left in my life. We may not have been the closest, but right now, he was the only thing that made sense. I was still not sure where Darien and I stood, and right now I couldn’t deal with it. Jaden hugged me back and it felt good; there was no drama, no hurt feelings, and no lust, just one person reaching out to help another. 

“Cat you listen to me and you listen
good. You were inside there; we guessed that you were going to go come to the Palace so we have been waiting here for you to come out. Then we heard them dragging a screaming woman inside. We thought it was you. I had to sit on him,” he jerked his finger toward Darien, “to stop him from going in. I had to tell him that he couldn’t go to you, that Jewel needed him at home. I told him that she was pregnant with their first child. That calmed him down for a minute, but he refused to leave until he was sure that you were finished. So we sat here even longer. I knew that you had been caught. The screams sounded so familiar, I knew they were yours. I didn’t know when, but I knew I had heard them before. Darien was almost ready to go home when you came walking out here, paler then I have ever seen anyone in my life. We don't know what the hell went on in there. If there is something that we can do to help, we are never going to be able to do it until you explain what went on in there. You have to pull yourself together and tell us Cat. You tell us now damn it.” 

If Jaden had talked to me in that
tone before, I would have stood up and walked away, but I knew he was right. If there was any way at all to salvage the situation and save ourselves, me being an emotionally detached catatonic wasn't going to help a thing. So I told them. I told them about Doctor Walker and about the others and I told them how I killed his twin and Darien’s mate. Watching their faces as I relived it was enough to stir up the pain I was trying to bury. When I stopped talking I couldn’t look at Darien. I had taken away the family that he never had the chance to have. I not only killed his mate Jewel, I had killed his unborn child too, and now thanks to me, there would be no child born for him to hold any time soon. I didn’t deserve to live. Knowing that Jewel was pregnant had been enough to stop him from coming after me. Sure he would have mourned me, but he would have done it while Jewel comforted him and whispered that everything was going to be OK. I couldn’t do that for him. I should have walked away the minute that I knew trouble was coming. I looked at Jaden and he had his head in his hands. Jewel had been his too. The bond that the two twins shared was something that none of us would ever understand. I had literally robbed him of half of his soul. Jewel was a part of him; they had the same reactions, they felt the same things, they finished each other’s sentences. I would never forgive myself for taking her away from the two men who loved and needed her. 

No one spoke for what seemed like eternity and finally Darien said, “We have to save him. It doesn't matter what he is, he has always taken car
e of us, and now it is our turn to take care of him.”  I looked at him appalled. 

“I am not saving him. He never told us what he was; he has done nothing but lie to us. He is the one that told us that Vampires were evil and we had to do whatever it took to cleanse the Earth of them. He played us for fools. I have the blood of your child on my hands because of that thing chained to the wall in there. I can’t save him. I can’t bring Jewel back, I can’t bring the baby back and I can’t bring back everyone else that is gone either. Why is a liar entitled to a se
cond chance?” I looked at Jaden hoping that he had would see my reasoning or at least more so than Darien.

“I know you are hurting Cat, but the man saved us and cared for us. I mean, hell, we wouldn't even be here if it wasn’t for him. We have to go get him. There is no doubt in my mind that Walker would die for us and monster or not, I think we owe him the same in return.”   I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We had been raised to believe that the only good monster was a dead monster and here they were telling me that they wanted to risk our lives and our secret
s to go help one.

“You guys are unbelievable. You didn't see him in there. He wasn't human, he was
hissing
for Christ’s sake. If you want to run off and play heroes, that’s fine, but you are doing it without me. I don’t owe that man a thing.” 

“That’s enough Cat!” I had to turn around and look to see where the voice was coming from and much to my surprise it was Darien. I had never heard that level of conviction and command in his voice before. “Cat I have heard enough. I don't care if he is a monster; I don't care if he is fucking Satan himself. He saved us; he let us live. He might be a monster, but he wants to help us. He has never given us a reason not to trust him and I am not going to just walk away. Besides, who the hell do you think you are? He is a Vampire, he can't help that. You, however, are screwing their King. I would say that’s way worse than being a Vampire.” 

The hatred in his voice let me know that nothing between us would ever be the same. I had lost more than my family; I had lost my best friend. I could never make him understand the feeli
ng that Akia's touch gave to me and he would never believe me if I told him that I had never slept with Akia. I knew now that there was no way that I could tell him how I truly felt about the Regent, because if he did believe me, which I doubted, I would feel like I was making a mockery of Jewel’s death. Where did that leave me? Darien was still here and alive and I thanked whatever force in the universe was responsible for protecting him. Yet, he was gone. What we had and even what we could have had was over.

“Everyone is dead and you have nothing better to do then to call me a monster's whore? I never thought you would ever say anything like that to me Darien.”  I couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice.

“Of course everyone is dead and it’s your fault Cat. If you hadn’t caused trouble from day one, if you would have been happy like the other girls, then everyone would still be alive.”

There was no doubt in my mind that Darien meant what he said with all of his heart. Whatever love he had felt for me in the past was gone. I was now downgraded to the person who had ruined
his future and the sad part was he was right. If I had just been happy being a housewife so to speak, then the others would still be here. If I had been happy just being a baby factory, Darien and I could have been partners and on our way to having children of our own. Thinking about it didn’t disgust me like it used to, it did just the opposite, and suddenly I longed for a past that I had thrown away. It was all my fault. What was the point of fighting? Maybe I should just walk in and say that I was the only one left. They really didn’t have the evidence to prove otherwise. I would just beg them to kill me because I couldn’t stand to go it alone. It would work, because it had to. I could give Darien and Jaden a chance at getting away. I owed them that much. 

“I don't know what is wrong with you two”, said Jaden, “but you can have
your little lover’s spat later, if there is a later. It isn’t anyone’s fault. We all knew that there was a chance that we would be discovered some day; it was a fact of life. As much as I am crying for Jewel, I know that if she was here right now she would tell both of you to grow up. She loved every minute of the life that she lived; the life that that man, our
father
, chained to the wall in there, gave her. Without him, we would have all died with our parents. Now if you two can shut up and knock it off, I am going to go avenge my sister. Right now, Dr. Walker is still in there. We owe it to him to try and get him out, even if we decide that it ends there and we go our own separate ways after. But we aren't walking away and leaving him with them. That man gave up everything for us, and I am damned well going to repay the favor.”

I was standing outside Akia's mansion, just out of the guard’s sight. I was trying to get myself together enough so that I could walk in there and act like I ha
d nothing to do with the vermin as my family was now being referred to. I’d have to laugh about their deaths when all I really wanted to do was kill everyone and anyone that had a hand in their slayings.

I had to get Akia to take me back down to Dr. Walker. I had to pay attention to where all the guards were stationed. I had to memorize the layout of the basement, mentally noting any unattended entrances and exits that we would be able to get in and out of. All of this, while keeping Akia from touching me. I had done well shielding what I needed to from him in the past somehow, without even realizing I was doing it, but today my he
ad was so filled with heartache, loss and pain, that I didn't think I had enough ability to concentrate left in me to hide the hurt. Not today.

I walked up to the gate. Just like yesterday, no questions
were asked. I was allowed to walk in the front door. It didn't flatter me today like it had yesterday; in fact, it bothered me. A real leader would maintain a mindset that assumed everyone was out to get him and no one would get past the door without a pat down at least. But I guess you tend to think differently when you spend your life hiding and knowing at any moment, someone could figure out that you are a fake and the game would be over.

“Well, well, well, if it isn't the kitty Cat herself. Tell me what is it that you are here for today; a little quickie maybe? I don't buy you
r act for a second. You are up to something and it is my job to protect the Regent. I don't care if he trusts you blindly. I don't think that you are just some bimbo. I think are up to no good and I will figure out what.” I didn't even have to turn around. I knew the voice belonged to Drake. 

“Oh now come on Drake. What is it that has your panties in a twist? Are you not getting all of Akia's attention anymore?” 

I just kept walking by him. I wasn't in the mood for a fight, not right now anyways, and besides, as much as I hated to admit it, Drake was the only level headed one in the bunch. He was the only one that was smart enough to see what Akia couldn't, and he would have to be dealt with later. I didn't know him that well but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn't going to rest until I was gone, which meant that he would need to be taken care of. I knew I was going to enjoy putting him down a lot. Akia was sitting behind his desk. He was in the same room as the big comfy couch room from yesterday which was lucky because that was really the only room that I knew how to get to.