The Chosen Ones (14 page)

“Enough with the gossip,” Tony
snapped.

As much as I wanted to keep
questioning her, Tony was right for once. The gates were opened. It was time to
act. Will tucked his feet underneath him and stood slowly, using the maple to
hide behind. Tony followed.

While Thane kept the guards
occupied, we moved down the hill. Grass rustled, birds chirped and took flight
at our approach. We did little to hide our progress, for we wanted the guards
to see us. We wanted their attention on us, not Thane. We’d taken only a few
steps when the guards turned. Thane took advantage of the distraction to leap
upon the guard closest to him. We had surprise on our side. No human had ever
attacked them before. Hearing his friend’s cry, the other guard tried to help.
And that’s when we attacked. Racing down the hill, Will lifted his sword, Tony close
behind him.

“Go!” Thane demanded, pushing me
toward the open gate. “You have ten minutes, at the most.”

Kelly and I raced into the
compound. As my foot stepped over that imaginary line separating the outside
world from the inside, everything seemed to slow. For the briefest of moments I
felt like I was back there again. Trapped in a cage. I froze in the middle of
their commons area, where the ground was worn from their waiting and pacing for
the beautiful ones. Where they’d stand on the last Sunday of every month hoping
to be picked. Where I’d last seen Tom.

“Jane? Do you see him?”

Kelly’s voice jerked me from my
stupor. I scanned the people who were slowly making their way toward us, drawn
by the open gates, confused because they saw no beautiful ones. They automatically
started into two lines, trained so well that they were like the pet dogs we’d occasionally
kept.

“Hurry, you need to gather your
people,” Kelly called out to them. “You must hurry. It’s an emergency.”

It was finally a woman in a
dingy brown dress who stepped forward, taking the lead. “Can we help you?” She
was older, in her twenties and reminded me so much of Sally that it was hard to
look directly at her.

Thane brushed by me, centering
himself between the lines. The guards were dead, obviously, or he wouldn’t be
here. Will might be our leader, but these chosen ones would only listen to Thane,
the one person they knew.
 

“You recognize me,” he stated in
a loud, authoritative voice that demanded respect. “You know me.”

I searched for Tom, but couldn’t
find him. What if I was too late? What if he’d already been chosen? Desperate, I
started through the crowds, weaving my way between the two lines, searching for
his familiar face. ,

“I’m here to tell you the
truth.” Thane started to walk between the lines. “You are not here for your
protection. You are not here because you will be offered some great reward when
you are chosen.” He paused, the entire crowd was deathly silent. “You are here
because you are food for the beautiful ones.”

They didn’t react the way I’d
expected. But of course they didn’t understand. It was too outlandish, too
insane for them to even comprehend. They slid each other confused glances, as
if looking for answers from their neighbors. But I didn’t have time to explain.
I needed to find Tom and fast. Tom would listen, he would understand. Where the
hell was he?
 

“Jane?” someone whispered, a low
sound that I heard even over the murmured confusion of the group.

I jerked my gaze from the crowd,
looked past Thane and found the familiar face I’d been hoping for, there…at the
back. “Tom.”

He shoved his way through the
group and I raced forward. Seeing him was a shock to my system. It had been
almost a month, and as I raced toward him I tried to take everything in at once.
His hair was longer, his face leaner, and I was sure his shoulders seemed
broader. But it was when I saw the woman next to him that I pulled up short.

Slowly, my gaze dropped to their
clasped hands. Tom wasn’t alone, he wasn’t pining after me. He’d replaced me.
But if I’d been surprised to see him, he seemed even more shocked to see me. I
could imagine what he must think…finding me in men’s trousers with a dagger
strapped to my thigh. I looked like one of the warriors I’d read about. Tom’s
nightmare, I went against everything he understood.

“Jane?” he whispered again.

I started forward. “I can explain.”
 

“Jane, wait.” Will reached out
and latched onto my arm, holding me back. “Let Thanatos.”

I wanted to jerk away from his
hold and continue to speak to Tom, but managed to keep my mouth shut.
 

“You are here,” Thane continued.
“As food, nothing more than cattle. You are here to be murdered.”

The entire group, at least
thirty people now, all gasped in shock and dismay. I should’ve been focused on
our mission; instead I could manage to do nothing but stare at Tom’s new love
interest. He’d found that woman to take to the couple’s cabin after all, and
apparently here they were allowed to touch in public.

Catching my gaze, she turned
toward Tom and I heard her whisper, “Do you know her? What do they mean?”

Tom shook his head, that overly
long hair brushing against the collar of his shirt. “I don’t know. I don’t
understand.”

It was obvious no one understood
and I knew why…they didn’t want to believe. They’d been bred on romantic ideals
of life outside these fences, they didn’t want to give up the hope, the dream.

“Tom.” I moved away from Will
and started toward him. I was acutely aware of the way his gaze took in my
outfit, the look of bewildered shock upon his face at my unexpected arrival, or
maybe the change in my appearance. I was someone he no longer recognized. But
did he still trust me?

I paused only a few feet away,
keeping my gaze focused on him and not the girl at his side. “You know me. You
know I’d never lie to you. It’s true. If you are chosen, they will kill you.”

He released a harsh laugh. “But
you were chosen, and you’re still alive.”

“I escaped, but Sally…she
didn’t.”

He shook his head, stepping
back, as if distance could keep the truth away. “What are you saying?”

My frustration grew, and when he
latched onto his girlfriend and pulled her even closer as if to protect her, my
annoyance flared. “Tom, come on. You can’t truly doubt me?”

“They killed the guards!”
someone cried out.

I cringed and Tom saw the truth
on my face. The truth caused chaos. The younger children cried out, scattering
toward the older ones. The older ones, who looked just as terrified, started
shuffling into a group like deer in a herd. How stupid we’d all been. How
unprepared. And now, I could see that fear clouding their judgment.

“Help!” one woman cried out, as
if expecting some beautiful one to come to her rescue. “Help us!”

Their naiveté disgusted me. Kelly
rushed toward the woman to try and hush her, but it was of no use. This was not
going the way we’d expected and I couldn’t help but feel responsible. I’d picked
this compound for my own selfish reasons. But we should have realized they
would never turn on the beautiful ones. They had been brain-washed from the
beginning. Will couldn’t understand it, but I did, and I could tell by the
disappointed look on Kelly’s face that she did as well.

“We need to go now,” Will said
impatiently. “Are any of you coming with us?”

Not one person stepped forward,
they merely huddled together in a blob, terrified, completely clueless and
utterly unready to accept the truth. They didn’t know us, why would they trust
us?
 

But I did know one person here. “Tom?”

If I could get him on my side,
maybe, just maybe the others would follow.

“Tom,” I repeated, stepping
toward him.

He shook his head, looking
nervous, scared. And in that moment I remembered and understood what Thane had
said… there were two kinds of people: the kind who took the books and the kind
who didn’t. I’d tried so hard to change Tom over the years, but I couldn’t. Tom
would never take the books.

“Tom, please.” I started to
reach for him, but he stumbled back, out of arm’s length. “You have to believe
me.”

“You’ve never liked them, Jane.”
He wrapped his arm around his girl, holding her close. She looked terrified and
I realized he’d found the perfect woman after all…someone who would conform. “You’ve
always wanted to be outside the gates.”

“I wouldn’t lie to you!”

“Jane.” Will gripped my upper
arms, pulling me back. “We have to go now.”

My anger flared, I jerked out of
his grasp, desperate to make him understand. “I wouldn’t lie about murder, Tom!
And that’s what they’ll do, murder you!”

“Jane,” Will hissed, shoving me
toward the gates. “Go! It’s no use. They won’t listen.”

But I spun out of reach. I had to
save Tom, even if I had to force him to leave. Suddenly, Thane was there.
Before I could guess his intentions, he picked me up and threw me over his
shoulder. I hit his hard body with a thud that momentarily knocked the wind
from my lungs.

“Let me go!” I gasped.

“Some people don’t want to see
the truth, even when it’s right in front of them.” He started toward the gates
and I could only watch as I got farther and farther away from that cowering
group. “We tried, Jane.”
 

“Tom, please!” I cried out, although
I knew Thane was right; it was a lost cause. The Tom I had known was gone,
perhaps he’d never existed. This man was a stranger to me.

At the gates, Thane settled me
on my feet. As I regained my balance, I found Tom easily, still protecting the
woman, whoever she was. As much as I wanted to be angry, I couldn’t, knowing
that he was going to end up regretting his choice. In those last moments, when
he was pinned to the tabletop before the beautiful ones tore out his throat, he
would realize I had been right all along.

“Please,” I whispered one last
time.

Thane grabbed my hand and jerked
me from the compound. We left the gates open, perhaps in a last-ditch attempt
to free the chosen ones, or maybe we just didn’t have time to close them. But
it didn’t matter, because a chosen one raced forward to close the gates,
trapping them within their own prison.

“Halt!” a dhampir guard called
out, appearing in front of us, someone Thane had missed.

“Go!” Thane shoved me toward the
others as he blocked the guard. I could hear the grunt of their fighting, fists
hitting fists, but didn’t dare look back. I’d seen enough death for the day.

Where one guard appeared,
another would follow. If I fell behind, Will and Kelly couldn’t afford to come
back for me. Not this time. And so I ran. I ran as fast as I could even though
I’d rarely run in my life. Shot back up the hill, ran so long and so hard that
my entire body trembled with exhaustion. And although they quickly outdistanced
me and I could barely see the rest of the group ahead, I kept going, trying to
outrun Tom and his rejection, trying to outrun the realization that he would be
murdered soon. And only when I thought I might faint, did I finally see them
paused atop a hill.

I managed to make it up the steep
grade and collapsed near them. Above, the trees wavered in and out of focus as
my mind fought to maintain consciousness. I clung to the exhaustion, needing
the pain to forget.
 

“It was a damn waste of time,”
Will snapped breathlessly, slamming his fists against a tree. “And worse, we no
longer have Thane on the inside.”

I threw my arm over my face,
squeezing my eyes shut and refusing to feel guilty. Raven, whoever he was, had
wanted this. Yet, Raven hadn’t picked this compound. “I’m sorry,” I muttered.
“If I hadn’t chosen this one, we might—”

“They all would’ve reacted that
way,” Will muttered, giving me reprieve as he rubbed his injured knuckles.

“They might not tell,” Kelly
said, always the positive one. “Surely Thane will kill the guards, so they
won’t—”

“Oh, they’ll tell,” Will
snapped. “Stupid damn sheep following whatever those murderers say, never
thinking for themselves.”

Yet, Will was following some faceless
man he’d never met. Raven.

“You don’t know!” I cried out,
stumbling to my feet, my anger giving me energy. I wasn’t even sure why I was
defending them, but they were my family, my friends. “You don’t have any idea
what it’s like there, on the inside!”

Will’s jaw clenched, but he
didn’t respond. Instead, he merely turned away and paced across the clearing. He
couldn’t reply. He knew I was right.

“Should we go?” Kelly said. “Get
as far away from the compound as possible?”

“We have time,” Will said,
raking his hands through his hair. “If there are any dhampir left they won’t
want to leave the compound unguarded.”

“They’re morons,” Tony growled.
“That’s the truth.” He didn’t wait for a response, but started back toward
camp, a hike that would take us all day.

Thane came up the hill, the only
one not panting, the only one who didn’t look upset or surprised. Most likely
he’d killed the guard. Another dead. I had to remind myself that this man had
actually loved someone at one time, someone other than himself. But it was hard
to remember when he was covered in blood and he stared at us with such cold
detachment.

Unable to stand any longer, I
collapsed onto a fallen log. It was my fault. I’d picked this compound. No
matter what Will said, it was my fault.

And I knew the group blamed me.
I saw the anger in Tony’s gaze before he had stomped away. I’d seen the wary glance
from Kelly when she thought I wasn’t looking. I rested my face in my hands,
completely exhausted, completely depleted. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t
understand this life. I sure as hell didn’t understand why Tom hadn’t believed
me.

“We need to go.” Will started
after Tony, Kelly following, leaving me alone with Thane.