Katie's Hope (Rhyn Trilogy, Book Two) (18 page)

He’d chopped him to pieces; he shouldn’t have
survived! And the vial never should’ve found its way back here!

It was Katie again. His fury rose once more.
She’d been the reason Kris turned his back on him, and she’d been
the one to bring the vial to the demon she thought was Ully. If he
found her, he might find the vial.

His mind foggy with pain, Jade began to humor
thoughts he’d previously rejected. They appeared more reasonable in
his current state. If he killed her, Kris would finally see the
folly of his ways. He’d have to deliver the vial to Darkyn first.
Maybe there was a chance he could leave Hell and come back to Kris.
After all, Kris hadn’t died in the attack, and Jade could blame it
all on Sasha.

A new idea struck, and he looked down at his
bloodied body. He would go to Kris and tell him just that-- that
Sasha had done this all, and he, Jade, had tried to help but been
nearly killed by the demons!

It would work. It
must
work! Darkyn
was too cruel a master to betray.

Jade shook his head, feeling as if madness
born of desperation were creeping into his mind with the pain. He
straightened and limped toward the castle. No one challenged him,
for the Immortals had no idea what he’d done. He passed through
them tensely, many of them as bloody or bruised as he was. He saw
only warriors on the main floor of the castle and ascended with
increasing pain to the floor where Kris would be.

Kris’s chamber was a burnt-out hull, and he
lingered for a moment, regret in his belly. He’d spent many
wonderful nights in the now crispy bed. He went next door to the
conference room and opened it.

Kris looked up, surprise crossing his face.
Kiki, the Ancient from Asia, sat beside Kris at the small
conference table and looked him over with a frown. Jade’s words
stuck in his throat at the sight of Kris’s beautiful emerald eyes.
Emerald was the color of Kris thinking, and Jade’s favorite
hue.

“My god, Jade, where have you been?” Kris
managed at last, standing.

“I needed some space,” Jade replied. “When I
came back, the demons were attacking. I chased them into the forest
and ended up surrounded. Barely made it back.”

“We lost half of Kris’s warriors and quite a
few of mine,” Kiki said. “You’re a lucky man.”

“Kiki, can you leave us alone?” Kris asked.
Kiki obeyed and left, closing the door behind him. Jade’s heart
started to soar. His one love wanted to be alone with him!

“I would hug you in greeting, but I’m down to
one of my last sets of clothing,” Kris said somewhat ruefully. He
moved to the edge of the table nearest Jade and crossed his arms as
he leaned against it. “You need a healer, my friend.”

“I’ve seen better days,” Jade agreed. “I am
sorry I wasn’t here when you needed me.”

“We survived. Barely. Waiting to see what
Darkyn intends by sending his remaining warriors to the human
village.”

“He would do that?”

“Seems that way. Kiki’s men are at the
village now to protect it.”

Jade was quiet, struck by the importance of
such a move. Darkyn had said nothing of this to him! It was one
thing for the demons and Immortals to fight, but to attack the
innocent humans was madness.
He
would never go so far.

“I am happy to see you. I was worried,” Kris
said in a soft voice. Jade’s pulse leapt at the words. “A lot has
changed in so short a time. The Council is working together for
once, and Sasha tricked us into thinking he was returning to the
Council, disappeared and washed up at the Caribbean Sanctuary. Our
father’s body was stolen.”

“I saw Sasha take the body into the forest,”
Jade said carefully. “He was shouting at the demons. Said he’d done
what they told him and given them you and the castle so they’d
leave him alone.”

Kris’s gaze darkened, and he stood, pacing to
the window. He stared into the dark night, watching the snow
fall.

“I guess they changed their mind. They
slashed him up good, but he’s still alive,” Kris said. “I wonder
how they got him away from the coffin. He should’ve known to stay
put.”

“I don’t know. He did say something about the
Sanctuary,” Jade said, seeking some lie to keep Kris’s suspicions
from turning to him. “It’s all I heard. I was fighting the
demons.”

“In any case, I’m pleased to see you again,
my friend,” Kris said. He seemed to shake his dark mood, and Jade
relaxed. “I have more good news for you.”

“We need good news!”

“I found my mate.”

Jade drew a sharp breath. “Katie?”

“No, her sister. There were two Ancient’s
mates born into her family. I discovered this when her sister
arrived here.”

Jade saw his chance of returning to his
ex-lover’s side disappear. The pain returned, and he realized he
hadn’t noticed its temporary reprieve until it clutched his chest
again. His thoughts turned to Katie. He’d give anything for the
vial and the feel of her blood on his hands! She’d brought him
nothing but pain, and now her family had taken Kris from him. His
whole life was in shambles because of her.

“You need some rest and a shower. The guest
room is open. Please, go take care of yourself,” Kris said, not
unkindly.

Jade couldn’t bring himself to ask about the
vial for fear of giving himself away. His battered body felt heavy,
and his emotions grew chaotic. He stared at the ground in front of
him, heartsick.

“Is Katie all right?” he forced himself to
ask. “Was she pleased to know her sister was joining our …
family?”

“Not exactly. She and her mate have become
even larger thorns in my side. I’m sending her back to the
Sanctuary in the morning.”

Jade looked up again, interested as much in
the sudden anger in Kris’s voice as he was in the knowledge that
Katie was in the castle.

“But, that’s for a different time,” Kris said
with a small smile. “Go and rest.”

“Thank you, I will.” His voice sounded
mechanical to his own ears. Jade opened the door to leave when
Kris’s voice stopped him.

“Jade, you know I’ll always care about
you.”

“It’s too late for that,” he said and walked
out. He went to the guestroom next door and closed the door. The
chamber seemed … foreign to him. It would be his last night with
the Immortals, for no one would forgive him once he followed
through with the plans forming in his mind.

Kris waited until the guest bedroom door
closed before he motioned to one of the Immortals posted on either
end of the hallway. With a sinking heart, he realized he’d lost the
Jade who’d been his friend and lover for a few hundred years.
Something was drastically altered about his friend, and the thin
collar around his neck told Kris everything he needed to know. What
he didn’t know was what happened to his other lieutenant, Iliana.
If Sasha was telling the truth, the chances of her being alive
weren’t good.

“Post six guards in this hallway. No one
leaves this floor unless it’s me. Understood?”

The Immortal nodded and trotted away to
gather more. Kris waited until five Immortals were present in the
hall before he retreated to his conference room. Once more, he
caught himself thinking of Andre and missing his brother’s-- and
best friend’s-- guidance.

Andre was dead-dead. He had to do what Andre
would have done.

Kris crossed to his burnt-out bedchamber and
dug through a trunk in the closet. He withdrew a dagger he’d
purposely buried there, never intending to follow in the footsteps
of Andre’s enforcer role. It was the dagger used to kill Rhyn’s
mother, and the same one Andre would’ve used to kill Sasha for
breaking his sacred oaths and trying to kill his brothers.

It was the same one he’d use to kill Jade and
Sasha.

Kris closed his eyes. He didn’t want this
role. It wasn’t in his nature. As much as he didn’t want to admit
it, this was a role for Rhyn, who had brought the Council back. He
gave his youngest brother no credit for understanding either the
importance of the Council or the good intentions behind bringing
the Council back together, but Rhyn knew how to use brute violence
when it was needed.

“You going hunting?”

He whirled to face the man of whom he
thought.

“For me?” Rhyn asked with a cunning smile.
“You’re the best Immortal warrior there is. It’d be an honor to
kill you.”

“Believe it or not, I was thinking of killing
someone else,” Kris replied, rising. He tucked the dagger into his
belt and shoved Rhyn out of his way as he exited the closet.

“It’s gotta be Sasha.”

Kris said nothing.

“I came to tell you something else.”

“I take it more bad news?” Kris said. “It’s
my day for that shit.”

“I think you’ll take this as good news,
knowing how much you like to see me suffer.”

“Then tell all.”

“I let Katie go.”

Kris turned, surprised. “I didn’t think you
were smart enough.”

“It’s the only way to keep you and the other
Immortals from treating her like shit.”

“You really did this?”

“I did.”

“So you’re going back to Hell?”

“No, brother, sorry to disappoint you,” Rhyn
said dryly. “I’m staying here. With you and the Council. It’s where
I’m supposed to be, isn’t it?”

“I don’t understand,” Kris said with a frown.
“You’re leaving her but staying here.”

“I’m going to make sure you and the Council
do what it must to protect her and everyone else like her.”

Kris looked at his condemned brother anew,
not sure how to take Rhyn’s newfound intent and resolve. Rhyn’s
gaze fell to the dagger Andre had carried.

“You don’t have the heart or stomach for what
that entails.”

Kris’s face felt warm, but he knew Rhyn was
right for once.

“Andre and I were more alike than you know,”
Rhyn added.

“You were nothing alike. What he did was for
the good of Immortals and humans alike,” Kris said.

“Right, because killing in cold blood isn’t
something a Council member does.”

“It’s not something I do,” Kris retorted.

“I will. Whomever you want, and whomever you
don’t want, I won’t.”

“You’ll take orders from me?”

“On this. On everything else, probably not.
But, I’ll keep the Council together to protect Katie and our
hatchling.”

Kris stared at him. “Humans don’t hatch,” he
whispered, not sure what else to say.

“I don’t give a shit how it works.”

“Dear god, Rhyn!” he said and shook his head.
Now he understood Rhyn’s powerful motivator, and he was both
impressed and horrified.

“And she wants to become a nun at a
Sanctuary,” Rhyn added. “Good place for her, Toby, and the
hatchling. I only ask one thing of you, Kris, in exchange for doing
your dirty work.”

“I’m all ears at this point.”

“You take care of her like you said you would
after the Council meeting. No more of the shitty treatment you’ve
been giving her. She’s no longer my mate. Treat her like she’s the
sister of your mate.”

Kris hesitated. He’d never had a conversation
with Rhyn where the two of them didn’t behave like
testosterone-plagued teenagers. He didn’t want to agree to Rhyn’s
terms, but the side of him willing to take in a creature like Sasha
emerged again. At the end of the day, he’d try to do what was
right. If Katie wanted to go to the convent, he’d be the last to
argue with her. It’d keep her out of his hair, safe, and the
powerful force that was Rhyn working for him.

“We have a deal,” he said. He withdrew the
sheathed dagger and tossed it to Rhyn. “I still can’t believe … I
shouldn’t be surprised. You fuck up everything.”

“I know,” Rhyn said, unaffected. “Who do I
kill first?”

* * *

Katie stood in the back doorway to the
castle, hoping Rhyn returned soon. Snow fell from the sky to be
either burned by the pyre or to cover the red mess that was the
rest of the park. Immortals lined the perimeter of the park
shoulder to shoulder and roved the interior of the castle. Kris had
assigned her a babysitter and ordered her to spray herself down
with the skunk spray so she wouldn’t draw any unwanted
attention.

Something tickled her neck, and she looked
down to see the first of the letters of her tattoo flutter to the
ground. They fell delicately one by one, like feathers. She grabbed
at one of them, then let it fall. It was what needed to happen. He
had to let her go, but the sense of yearning and pain was too
strong for her to sleep.

She sank down with her back to the door, not
caring about the cold day or the snow that seeped through her
clothes to chill her. She stared at the blood-colored letters as
the snow buried them. She’d tried opening a portal soon after Rhyn
left to return to the Sanctuary but failed. Though there was a wall
of Immortals between her and the forest, she felt the demon
watching her, waiting for its opening, now that she was no longer
protected. Again she found herself hoping Gabriel took her
soon.

Darkyn
. He wasn’t like the other
demons. None of them had gotten into her head.

“You’re like bait out here.” Kris’s voice
made her tense. “Go to your chamber. I’ll have you taken back to
the Sanctuary tomorrow.”

“I want to go back today,” she replied.

“Not until I find Ully and test the vial you
brought me. If it’s not the immunity blood, then Ully will need you
here in his lab.”

She rolled her eyes, once again a test
subject to the great overlord of the Immortals. She rose and shook
out the chill.

“Besides, you should be resting,” he said
with a forced note of kindness. She looked up at him questioningly.
To her surprise, he walked with her toward the stairs. “I
understand you want to go to the convent.”

“Rhyn told you?”

“He told me many things, such as he’d let you
go.”