Centaur Legacy (17 page)

“Where did he take her?”

“If I knew that I’d already be
there.”

“Drake, did you two get what you were
after in Ireland?”

“No, but I don’t think Zandra is our
biggest problem right now.”

“You’re right. I just. . . don’t worry,
Drake, we’ll find her. Phineas is an old friend. If he did this,
he’d never hurt her.”

“Not
if
. He took her.” I thought back to
my last few minutes of consciousness, “She killed one of the
Centaurs before they got her.”

“She killed one? How?”

“She has her powers, Will. She got them
when we left Ireland. She made a table fly across the room and
staked one of them through the chest.”

“You three, stay put. The boys and I
will be on the plane tonight.”

I needed for Beau to take the phone.
Something bothered me. Why would Phineas have done this? What was
in it for him? If he wanted to take Cami, he had every opportunity
at Zandra’s house. He’d helped us escape and delivered us to Will.
What would have changed? Why now?

*****

My body repaired itself faster than I
would have dreamed possible, maybe out of sheer will. Broken bones
took longer than tissue to heal, so my ribs and jaw would be a day
or two before they’d fully mend, but after just a few hours, my
eyes opened and the bruising all over me was a greenish-yellow
rather than the purple and blue colors that Daniel and Beau had
found me wearing.

I knew Cami had all of her
powers. I kept hoping to hear a telepathic thought from her.
Telepathy didn’t work over great distances for most, but as
her
Centaur, she should
be able to speak to me from any distance, even if we hadn’t yet
united. I called out to her in my mind but heard nothing in return.
Either she was still sedated, or. . . I wouldn’t think about the
other possibility.

Once I’d had a shower and put on some
clothes that weren’t crusted with blood, my mind seemed to be more
alert, as well. I emerged from the bathroom and saw a note from
Beau to come to his room. The door was ajar, and I heard Daniel and
Beau planning their strategy quietly. I’d known Beau most of my
life, but this was the first time I’d seen Daniel. He was more than
a half-blood, but not a pure-blood. He was Cami’s close friend; I
never would have guessed that he was a partial Centaur.

I stuck out my hand, “Hi, Daniel, I’m
Drake.”

He looked at my outstretched hand. He
took it, but not because he wanted to make my acquaintance. Daniel
used it as a handle to draw me closer to him – so I could feel his
rage. “You were supposed to protect her. All that bullshit on the
phone: that she was under your protection. When I find her, I’m
going to kick your ass all over again.”

Beau shook his head, “Daniel, take it
easy. It’s not like he handed her over. You saw him when we got
here.”

“Yeah, I saw him. I heard him say Cami
killed one of ‘em, too. How many did pretty boy take
down?”

It didn’t matter that I agreed with
Daniel, Beau was quick to defend me. “He was outnumbered, Daniel.
If he weren’t a Centaur, he wouldn’t be alive right
now.”

Daniel mumbled, “It’s not like he’s
doing us much good anyway.” Daniel refused to speak to me directly,
in favor of bashing me to Beau. “I had a better chance of
protecting her from three states away than this douche.” His tone
was bitter. He was right – things never should have happened the
way that they did. She was taken, and it was my fault.

Daniel was definitely more Centaur than
human. We all tried to pretend to be civilized, to mask the fact
that we were born of beasts, but when angry, our civility nearly
evaporated. He was a hundred and eighty pounds of rage, and even as
a pure-blood, I wouldn’t provoke him. Daniel would be an asset
despite the human blood that ran through him. Trying to get
involved with the plan, I asked, “Has anyone called
Zandra?”

Both sets of eyes shot daggers at me as
if I had suggested summoning Lucifer. “Look, I don’t like her any
more than either of you, but she’s the most powerful Centauride on
the planet. She could be an asset.”

Beau answered, “No, and we aren’t going
to call her, either.”

I didn’t think they were looking at the
bigger picture, “Beau, whoever took Cami had it planned out. She
could be anywhere by now. Zandra is not my favorite Centauride,
either, but she could help.”

Daniel stood up; he was eye-to-eye with
me. I wasn’t sure if he planned to take a swing at me or not. He
was furious when he answered, “Zandra took her away from us all.
She’s not going to do it again. Don’t call her.”

Daniel was right. Defeated, I left
Beau’s room and went back into the room I should have been sharing
with Cami right now. The ache I felt was overwhelming. I’d lost her
again, this time maybe for good.

I remembered my mom and dad when I was
a kid. They’d carry on whole conversations without ever saying
anything out loud. I hadn’t heard any of Cami’s thoughts since I
came to, but maybe she could hear mine.

With all my concentration,
I thought, “
Cami, if you can hear me, tell
me where you are
.” I waited, hoping to hear
something. I turned off the lights in the room and took a seat in
the chair. “
Cami, I can’t lose you. Help
me find you, Love.
” I could hear a train
through the window, I could hear my heart beating wildly in my
chest, but I couldn’t hear Cami.

I remembered back to the day at
Zandra’s estate when my so-called death took place. I was still on
a high from having spent the night with Cami. Gage set it up so
that Cami and I could have some alone time. Gage told me to stagger
our appearances at breakfast, so Zandra wouldn’t grow suspicious.
While I was back in my room getting dressed, I was thinking about
how I was going to corner Gage to see if he had come up with a plan
yet on how we were going to bust out Cami.

While I was lost in that thought,
Bianca and Zandra walked into my room. Bianca couldn’t meet my
eyes, so I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what. Zandra
summoned one of Cami’s guards; he bound our wrists, gagged us, and
then put a blindfold over me. I overheard her whispering to the
guard to take us to the guest quarters. She told him to be careful
to avoid the gardens. I didn’t know why at the time but found out
later it was because Gage and Cami were waiting for her
there.

Just before we were taken down the
hallway, I heard Bianca whimper from behind me. The guard held me
tight in position. I heard a louder, muffled scream from Bianca. I
didn’t know what Zandra was doing to her, and I couldn’t see
through the blindfold to help her. After a third scream through
Bianca’s gag, Zandra’s venomous voice answered, “It was only a
scratch, you nag. You’re lucky I don’t strike you down where you
stand.”

I felt the slice of the knife across my
forearm, then a second and a third. I didn’t know at the time what
she had been up to, but I learned later that to make our murder
scene more realistic, she splattered our blood on the
walls.

Bianca told me after we were at the
guest quarters that she’d been caught leaving Gage’s room that
morning. I was guilty by association because Bianca and I were
betrothed.

Technically, I was guilty, too, for
having spent the night in Cami’s room – Zandra just didn’t know it.
We weren’t mistreated during our imprisonment, but neither of us
was allowed to leave the guest house or to interact with anyone
besides the guards. We didn’t find out until Cami rescued us that
everyone, including our parents, had been told we were
dead.

I secretly wondered if that was the
event that drove Cami into my arms. Until our rescue, I knew Cami
had feelings for me, but she refused to make any plans for the
future. Even though I brought it up at Zandra’s estate, Cami
wouldn’t entertain even the idea of marriage. During those three
weeks when she believed I was dead, something had changed in her. I
was worried that it was just the shock of finding us alive, that
maybe she’d wake up one morning and decide she didn’t feel for me
the way I felt for her.

I started broadcasting
thoughts to Cami again, hoping she could hear me.
“
You know, I wanted you to be mine from
the first second I saw you. On our trip to Ireland when you told me
you chose me, my heart ballooned. You are everything I’ve ever
wanted and then some. I was worried that you only chose me because
you were shocked to see me alive. That’s why I didn’t push you to
call Will. I’m a frickin’ idiot, okay? I should have had you call
Will before we ever got off the plane. None of this would have
happened if I’d have just made you call.
” I
wiped the stupid tears away hard, glad that I was alone in the dark
where no one could see me.

“I never would have
guilted you into choosing me. I was willing to wait decades for you
if you needed them. I told you I’d wait as long as it took. I’ll
still wait as long as it takes; I’m not going
anywhere
.” My eyes were pouring and the
ache in my chest refused to subside. “
The
last six days have been more than I could have ever hoped for. More
than I’d ever allowed myself to dream of. You chose me, Cami. You
chose me.
”

The savages who stole her would know my
wrath soon. I would use every weapon in my arsenal. As I felt my
fury for her kidnappers, I realized one of the weapons in my
arsenal, whether or not Beau and Daniel approved, was
Zandra.

Throughout the last week, I saw a whole
different side of Cami. She was no longer the Centauride who didn’t
know her way around her new world. She was confident, smart, and
decisive – I didn’t think it was possible to want her more than I
did at Zandra’s house, but she’d proved me wrong on that front,
too.

Centaurs don’t date the way humans do.
Physical contact of any kind is frowned on. If my family had seen
us and how familiar we were with one another in Ireland, I could be
in some serious trouble. I knew William was putting Cami’s safety
over customs, but I don’t imagine he would have been thrilled,
either.

Yet, even knowing the repercussions for
our actions, I wouldn’t have changed a single second in the time
that we had together. Every time we were alone, we crossed the line
a little bit further than we had the time before.

I wanted her so badly that
my body ached for her. She always seemed so oblivious to it, too. I
wasn’t sure why I needed to tell her these things, especially when
I was pretty sure she couldn’t hear me. “
When you came out of the bathroom at the hotel, the night
we’d found the pasture of Thessaly, wearing the nightgown:
Wow
.” A smile I wasn’t expecting stretched
wide across my face at the memory. “
Frickin’ wow, Cami.
”

My mind wandered to our short time at
this hotel this morning. Had Daniel not called when he did, or if
Phineas hadn’t decided to make his appearance exactly when he did,
I couldn’t be sure what would have happened between us. I’d like to
think that we would have put the brakes on, but I loved her, and
more than that – I wanted her.

She believed that because she had been
intimate with a human before she met me it would somehow make her
less desirable. I’m sure I would never admit it to anyone except
Cami, but it just made me want her more. She wasn’t a pristine
flower to be worshiped from afar. She didn’t fit into the
cookie-cutter image of what I’d grown to believe Centaurides to be.
She was real. She had passion, desires, and this sexiness about her
I’d never seen in another – Centauride or human. Who wants pristine
when you can have perfection?

“Cami, if you can hear me,
I love you. I love everything about you. The Ronnie guy you told me
about, I don’t care. Just tell me where you are. You’re mine. You
belong to me
.”

(Zandra Chiron – Camille’s
Grandmother, San Diego, CA)

I’d been searching for Camille and
Drake for a week. William Strayer was more cunning than I had given
him credit for being. I found the passenger manifest of his sons
taking a vacation to San Diego. It didn’t make sense that two of
his sons would take a vacation to the very place Camille felt most
at home. I was sure he had smuggled the couple here under the guise
of his sons’ names.

After four days the only thing I had
turned up was William’s son, Beau, and that vile half-breed,
Daniel, who had come to my estate. It was time to go back to
Charleston and retrace their steps. They couldn’t stay hidden from
me forever, and I couldn’t afford to waste anymore time.

I was the leader of the Centaur
Council. I didn’t understand how Camille and Drake had successfully
evaded me. I needed them apart before the Centaur society found out
about Camille.

Seeing the future brings grave
responsibility. The very night I brought Camille to my estate, I
saw one horrific possibility play out in front of me. I couldn’t
let that be her destiny.

At first, simply educating Camille
seemed enough. She was as intelligent as her mother, and given the
right information, she would choose the wise path. But as the days
passed, the horrific possibility I’d seen began to solidify more
rapidly.