Marked (28 page)

"What
is entailed in 'most' of the functionality?"

"We'll
be able to scramble our location for incoming calls, but not for
outgoing ones."

Alec
sighed. "That's not ideal, but it's better than nothing. It will
take some doing to set up a call schedule so that we get regular
incoming calls, but it's doable."

"Indeed,
Master Alec. It will also make us less nimble when responding to
unexpected events, but I should have pushed for something like this
days ago."

Alec
gently patted Donovan on the shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up
about it, Donovan. This solution isn't going to be as bulletproof as
you're being told it is. Software solutions are never as reliable as
hardware solutions. Besides, there was an element of risk in pushing
the issue like this. I rather expect that we're going to see a
decrease in the responsiveness of our hacker who specializes in
communications hardware. Hackers tend to be difficult to work with at
the best of times and he'll be feeling like we crashed his party.
Hopefully we can salvage the relationship enough to get him to write
the revised drivers when we've managed to get our hands on a proper
set of hardware."

Addison
was driving again and she got the RV moving forward at the precise
time that Alec turned towards his bedroom. Under normal circumstances
I would have expected Alec to seamlessly compensate for the change,
but this time he actually tripped and fell, and he didn't just get
right back up, it took the combined efforts of Donovan and I to get
him back up to his knees.

"We
don't have very much longer. I've been awake for too long. Can the
two of you please help me back to the bedroom so we can review the
last few things I have to tell you?"

Once
we made it back to the bedroom Alec motioned towards the white noise
generator. "Adri, can you please turn that on."

"There's
no need. Get some sleep. None of this is so critical that it can't
wait until you've had a chance to catch up on your rest."

"Donovan,
please turn it on, there are things I need to say that shouldn't be
overheard."

Donovan
looked back and forth between Alec and me for nearly a full second
before stepping around me and turning on the privacy generator. Once
it was on, Alec turned back to me.

"I'm
afraid this stuff can't wait, Adri. Today has been a godsend. It gave
me a chance to still some of the rumors that were probably starting
to circulate even beyond our group and it let me reinforce your
position as my heir, but today was nothing more than a temporary
reprieve. Once I fall back asleep Dream Stealer is going to pull me
back into his realm and this time I won't be coming back unless you
manage to find him and kill him out here in the real world."

I
could feel tears starting to pool in the corners of my eyes, but I
blinked them away. It had been there the whole time but I'd refused
to see it. Even now I was still mostly in denial.

"That's
not true, Alec. We beat him."

"Beat
him, yes, killed him, no. He'll be back for me, I can feel it. I'm
sorry I didn't say something earlier, but it seemed cruel. I wanted
us to be able to spend today together as much as possible without him
hanging over us."

"I
beat him once, I can do it again. I'll go with you and we'll fight
him together. This time we'll kill him and you'll never have to worry
about him ever again."

Alec
grabbed my hand and pulled me down so I was sitting on the bed next
to him. "You don't have good enough control over your ability
yet, Adri. You can't guarantee that you'll be able to make it back
into my dream, and even if you did, you can't guarantee that you'll
be able to time it so that you arrive when I'm fresh and able to help
you. We got lucky last time and it still cost you the use of your
arm. I don't want you to come back in after me."

"You
won't be able to stop me."

"It's
true, which is why I want you to promise me that you won't try. Go
after Dream Stealer in the real world. We can't win these fights by
going up against the Coun'hij where they are strong, we need to go
after them where they are weak. Jasmin's idea is brilliant. If Jaclyn
doesn't get anywhere when it comes to looking for the ghost pack then
I want you to put our people to work capturing a vampire mentalist.
You'll have to find one who's strong enough to get the job done, but
not so strong that we can't keep him imprisoned."

Donovan
hadn't heard the summary of Alec's call with Jasmin yet; he looked
positively poleaxed. "Master Alec, that's brilliant. Why didn't
she say something before now? Once we have a mentalist under our
control then all we'll need to do is capture one of the enforcers and
use the mentalist to pull the location of the Coun'hij's headquarters
out of them."

"Jasmin
has already done it. She tracked them to a state park in Tennessee,
but she plain and simply doesn't have enough backup to get the job
done."

I
blinked in shock. Alec hadn't revealed that particular detail
earlier. Donovan was so astonished that it took him several seconds
to find the right words.

"Master
Alec, why are we not headed to Tennessee right now to aid her? This
is our chance to end the war once and for all."

"Because
Rachel told me not to."

"You
talked to Mistress Rachel?"

"Not
exactly, more like she sent me a message telling me that I couldn't
get involved in Jasmin's offensive."

Donovan
appeared to be choosing his next words carefully. "It must have
been difficult to let Jasmin head into that kind of situation on
nothing more than faith in Rachel's apparent ability to see the
future."

"Yes.
Especially because it is almost certain that Jasmin's attack will
result in the Coun'hij relocating. When we are ready to attack we're
going to be faced with tracking the Coun'hij down again before we can
actually strike. It was a hard decision, Donovan, but I'm confident
that I made the right one."

"As
you say, Master Alec."

"No."
My voice came out oddly detached considering the raging torrent of
emotions trying to break free of my tenuous mental control. "No,
that's not okay. We need to go right now and help Jasmin. I'm willing
to take a lot on faith where Rachel is concerned, but you are
not
going to throw away what may be our only chance at killing Dream
Stealer. I'm going to tell Addison to make for Tennessee."

Alec
grabbed hold of my hand with a gentle, but still unyielding strength.
"We can't do that, Adri. I'm already on my last legs. By the
time we arrive in Tennessee I'll be long gone. That means you would
be going up against the might of the Coun'hij with nothing more than
a few dozen wolves and hybrids. You can't win, not against those
odds. I started out lying to Jasmin and refusing to help her because
of Rach's message, but by the end I'd realized that it really was the
only way forward."

I
cast about for a counter-argument—I wasn't going to give up
without a fight, not this time. "Use your ability. It propped
you up earlier in the parking garage. Use it on some of our people
and you can keep yourself awake until we arrive in Tennessee. That
way when we go up against the Coun'hij we'll have you at our backs.
It's the perfect answer."

"We
don't know that the use of my gift was what gave me a second wind.
It's entirely possible that it was nothing more than the result of my
being positive for a second that you were going to die. I've never
felt that much adrenaline hit my system at once."

"That's
crap and you know it, Alec. I saw the same thing happen before then
when you used your power on our people back at the music festival.
Really it shouldn't have taken me this long to put the pieces
together, but now that I've had a chance to think about things it
couldn't be more obvious."

"You
don't know that for a fact, Adri, any more than I do. Regardless, I
won't do it. I nearly killed my mother. Who would you sacrifice in
her stead just for the slim chance of buying me a few more hours of
exhaustion-addled wakefulness?"

"You
used it on your people after you put your mother back into a coma.
It's too late to pick and choose now."

"I
used it on all of our people at once and I used the smallest field I
was capable of. That's entirely different than using it on two or
three people. The risk is simply too great, Adri, and before you ask,
no, I won't use it on you, not even if you volunteer. As you pointed
out so recently, neither of us is capable of making the other do
something we don't want to do."

"We
shouldn't have killed those last three enforcers then. You could have
drained them until the cows came home and if you happened to go a
little too far and kill one of them it wouldn't have been any great
loss. Man, why couldn't I have thought of that back then?"

"It
wouldn't have made any difference, Adri. I thought of it before I
killed them, but I wouldn't have agreed to that plan either. I'll use
my ability on an enemy to defeat them or even to kill them, but will
not agree to enslaving even a full member of the Coun'hij in that
fashion. To do so would be to turn myself into something very little
different than the vampires we've all spent so much time fighting."

"So
I'm just supposed to sit here and watch while Dream Stealer destroys
your sanity?"

"No,
do as I asked. Re-establish communications with the rest of our
people, especially Isaac—I don't want him to continue thinking
that I'm holding some kind of grudge. I know you may not be able to
call him for a little while, but if he calls again you have to
promise me that you'll answer no matter what."

"Okay,
Alec. It sounds like we probably need to do some testing over the
next few days to make sure that the communications solution is
working as intended, but after that I'll bump Isaac to the top of the
list."

"No,
this is important. If he calls you have to find a way to talk to him
and tell him that I'm not angry."

"Are
you saying that you want us to risk the lives of everyone else here
in order to take Isaac's call?"

Alec
closed his eyes for several seconds before shaking his head. "No,
don't put everyone in danger—that wouldn't be right, but please
do everything you can to find a way to talk to him. I get the feeling
that Isaac's in a bad way and I'd rather not have him go to his death
thinking that I abandoned him because of something petty like that."

I
looked over at Donovan, who seemed to be making a concerted effort
not to get sucked into this particular part of the conversation, and
could tell that he was thinking the same thing I was. This wasn't
just because Alec was worried that Isaac's time was short. Alec was
subconsciously worried that
Alec's
time was short. It made me want to cry, but I managed to hold myself
together, receiving a nod of agreement from Donovan before turning
back to Alec.

"Okay,
Alec, I get it. We'll do whatever we can to fix things between the
two of you. What else do you need to tell us?"

"Start
analyzing everything we can get from Fort Loudon State Park in
Tennessee in the hopes that we'll be able to track the Coun'hij if
they move after Jasmin's attack, and be able to take them at a later
date after you've had a chance to consolidate our people back into
one group."

My
sadness hadn't disappeared, but part of it was starting to morph into
something else, the kind of white-hot anger that I only seemed to
feel when I felt completely helpless.

"That
won't make a difference though, Alec. Don't you see? Without you we
still don't have a chance. Jaclyn and Grayson are both useless
against Puppeteer's werewolves."

"I
know, but they aren't your only weapon. Tasha is asking Lori to meet
up with us in Kansas City. She's the one who can shift the tide for
us. Drop her in the middle of the Coun'hij's base and she'll have
their own people climbing over top of each other to kill Puppeteer
and his werewolves."

"She's
dangerous, Alec. I don't know if we can control her."

"I
know she's dangerous, but you've got to think in terms of winning her
friendship. You've made a good start there, continue on in the same
manner, but keep Dominic and a few of the other women you trust
around. I wish I'd been able to get Jasmin to come back here for that
reason if for no other. She and Lori would strike sparks off of each
other, but she would go a long way towards keeping Lori in check."

I
shook my head as the first of my tears escaped and made shiny tracks
down my cheeks. "Please don't do this, Alec. Don't give up like
this."

"I'm
not giving up, Adri. I'm going to be fighting Dream Stealer with
everything I have, but this is the only way for us to win, the only
way that doesn't result in me turning into the kind of monster we're
trying to defeat."

"I'm
scared."

"You've
still got Donovan and Mallory and now you've got James and Dom here
to watch your back as well. You don't need to be scared. All of the
pieces are in place; you just need to hold things together for a
little bit longer and it will all be over. For the first time in
centuries someone actually has a chance at toppling the Coun'hij. Be
strong for just a little bit longer and everything will be okay."

I
wiped my tears away and nodded. Alec gave my hand another squeeze and
then looked back over at Donovan.

"When
you finally get a shot at Dream Stealer and the others you're going
to want to mobilize every resource we have, Donovan. That means Alexi
and everyone else he thinks is remotely trustworthy."

"Are
you sure, Master Alec? Even Alexi doesn't know the truth about us.
He's been working for us long enough and cleaned up enough of our
slipups that I suspect he's put together most of the pieces. He can
probably be trusted to continue to keep what he sees a secret, but if
we start bringing in other mercenaries we're liable to have the
existence of our people get out to the public."