Marked (29 page)

"I'm
sure. The Coun'hij needs to be stopped regardless of the price. We
take the best shot we can and we'll worry about picking up the pieces
afterwards."

"Very
good, Master Alec, is there anything else?"

"Probably,
but I'm so tired I'm having a hard time keeping track of the pieces.
Try and track down anyone we haven't heard from lately. Jess, Wyatt,
Isaac, Ash and Kristin, along with whoever survived from the Chicago
pack. We're probably going to need all of them before this is over."

"If
it is within my power it will be done, Master Alec."

"I
know it will be, Donovan. I…I'm grateful for everything.
You've been one of the few constants in my life and none of this
would have been possible without your support. You were the best
father anyone could have hoped for, blood relation or not."

Now
it was Donovan's eyes that had gone shiny with unshed tears. I didn't
want to leave Alec's side, not now that I knew just how short our
time together might be, but I also knew that this was a moment that I
wasn't meant to share. I tried to stand again so I could give the two
of them their privacy, but Alec still refused to let go of my hand.

"Please
stay, Adri."

"No,
the two of you should have a few minutes alone. It's only right."

Donovan
blotted at his eyes with a handkerchief and then cleared his throat.
"No, Mistress Paige, Master Alec is quite right. Over the last
two decades we have said everything that needs to be said. He knows
that I couldn't be prouder of him, and that I profoundly respect the
man he's become. More than that though, there is no need because this
isn't a time for goodbyes. I will see him again."

"Careful,
Donovan, you're starting to sound like me. The next thing you know
you'll be delusional and lying to people because you're convinced
that you can will the future you want into existence."

Donovan
gave me a very serious smile. "Mistress Paige, if your
'delusions' are capable of continuing to bring Master Alec back to us
again and again, then one has to wonder if they're really delusions.
I'll leave the two of you to discuss whatever else needs to be
discussed."

"Donovan,
please tell Mallory that I'm sorry we didn't get more time together.
I meant to carve out a few minutes with her, but it just didn't end
up happening."

Donovan
bowed his head. "I think you'll find that Mallory is nothing if
not a pragmatist, Master Alec, but I will convey your apologies."

Once
Donovan had pulled the door shut behind him, Alec gave me a sad
smile. "You still haven't promised me that you won't come in
after me."

"I
was kind of hoping that you wouldn't notice."

"Fat
chance of that. I've thought about very little else since I first
realized how terrible of a price you had to pay to come get me this
last time. Please promise me?"

I
debated for several seconds before shaking my head. "I won't
give you the promise you want, Alec, but I'll agree not to just jump
right in without looking. I'll give the effort of tracking him down
in the real world my best shot and only come in after you if it seems
like there isn't any other option."

"I
guess that's probably about as good of a compromise as I'm going to
get."

"I'm
afraid so."

"Very
well, I accept your terms on one condition. When you come after me
you do so with the knowledge that the man you're trying to save might
not be there to be saved anymore. You need to have Donovan here to
put me down if it turns out that I'm too far gone to come back to
myself after you kill Dream Stealer."

"Alec,
no! You can't talk like that."

"I'm
serious, Adri. I don't want to become a monster. My ability is too
dangerous for that. The amount of destruction I could wreak if Dream
Stealer makes me over in his own image would be unimaginable."

"Maybe
you're right, but don't make Donovan and me do it…"

"It
has to be the two of you, Adri. Nobody else knows me better. Maybe
Jasmin or Rach could make the call as to whether I'm still me, but
there's no guarantee that either of them will be around. You'll have
to decide fast. If I've really gone off the rails then I'll be
incredibly dangerous."

I
tried to look away from him. I couldn't even begin to classify
everything I was feeling in that moment, but my emotions were so
overpowering they were causing me to shake. I wanted to scream, cry,
and laugh hysterically all at the same time. Only Alec would put this
kind of burden on two of the people who loved him the most, but he
wasn't wrong to be worried about what he might become if Dream
Stealer was allowed to torture him for weeks or even months.

"I'll
do what needs to be done, Alec. If there's one thing I've learned
from you it's a sense of responsibility."

Alec
nodded hesitantly. I was pretty sure he knew I was telling the truth,
but he could apparently also tell that I wasn't telling him the full
story. That was fine. I wasn't about to start volunteering extra
information—not after what he'd just made me promise to do.

I
would live up to my end of the deal if it came to it, but I was going
to do everything I could—up to and including going in after him
sometime within the next week or so if it came to that—in order
to make sure that there was still something there to save. 'No other
choice' was one of those subjective kinds of phrases and that was
what I'd agreed to.

Alec's
head had started to bob, so I gently pushed him back onto his pillow.
"Is there anything else you need me to promise? Any innocent
children who need to be gunned down or schools that need to be burned
to the ground?"

"Please
don't be like that, Adri. I wouldn't ask if there was any other
choice…"

"I
know, but that doesn't change the fact that everything about this
situation sucks."

Alec
pulled me down next to him and helped me turn so I could rest my head
on his chest. His heartbeat didn't sound like the heartbeat of a
condemned man. It sounded slow and strong—too confident for
someone who was about to be tortured.

"I
know. I'm sorry—I really wish that things could be different.
Maybe I shouldn't have declared war against the Coun'hij. Maybe I
should have pretended to join them and then tried to destroy them
from the inside."

"No,
you couldn't have done that and still been you. You had to do what
you did—this is all just part of the price for being you, Alec.
It just sucks that we live in the kind of world that punishes the
best and brightest. You deserve a lot better than this."

"I'm
not sure I qualify as the best or the brightest, but I appreciate the
sentiment."

We
sat there in silence for several seconds. I was afraid that he'd
fallen asleep, but I was too scared to check. It was an incredible
relief when he finally spoke again.

"If
Rachel shows back up—if she survives all of this—can you
please tell her that I love her and that I'm sorry I didn't take
better care of her?"

"You
are
going to survive—I think you took great care of her—but
I'll tell her that's what you said."

"Thanks.
Tell my mother that I'm sorry our last interaction had to go down
like it did. I must have envisioned her coming back to herself a
million times over the last ten years, but it was never like that in
my imagination."

"Alec…I'm
sorry about…"

"No,
it wasn't your fault. I should have known that she would be like
that. The distant, distracted woman I knew growing up never could
have been such a polarizing figure inside of the pack. I should have
expected something like this."

"Are
you sure I'm the best one to tell your mom anything?"

"It
needs to come from you. Sooner or later she's going to have to accept
that you were the one I wanted to spend my last moments with."

"Okay,
Alec. I'll tell her."

"Thanks,
Adri. I never meant to drop all of this on you. Almost from the first
moment we met I wished that I was someone else, that we could just
have a normal life together without any worries about the Coun'hij or
restoring the monarchy. I've wished so many times that I could just
bring myself to walk away from it all so that you wouldn't have to
see this side of the world."

"Never
wish that, Alec. I wouldn't have fallen in love with you if you'd
been the kind of person who could abandon people who desperately need
you. Never apologize for who you are. I keep wanting to tell you to
stop saying goodbye, but I guess I'm no better than you when it comes
to that either. I would hate to miss the chance to tell you that you
saved me. Not just from Simon and Nathanial or from Brandon. You
saved me from despair.

"When
I met you I didn't want to go on anymore. I wanted to curl up in a
little ball and just wait to die. I felt like there wasn't anything
left to live for, but you changed all of that. You showed me a world
of terror and pain, but it's also a world of incredible beauty, one
where it actually matters what we choose, one where I can help make a
difference, even if just a small one. You've been everything I could
have ever hoped for and I'm sorry for how much pain I caused you."

Alec
shook his head. "You don't need to apologize for that, Adri. We
both needed that to happen to get to where we are today. I'm so
grateful that you came into my life when you did. In a very real way,
everything I've accomplished in the last few months is because of
you."

He
sounded so tired. I was pretty sure that anyone else would have given
up fighting a long time ago, but Alec just refused to go to sleep.
His breathing slowed even more, but just when I thought he'd finally
succumbed to his exhaustion he squeezed me tighter.

"Will
you stay here until I fall asleep?"

"Of
course I'll stay here, Alec. I'll make sure there is always someone
here watching you, even when I can't be here, and I'll be here every
spare minute I can manage."

"Thank
you. That actually helps more than I would have expected."

I
stayed there by Alec's side for twenty more minutes as he continued
to fight off the sleep that would mean a return to being in Dream
Stealer's power, but even Alec's incredible will eventually met its
match and he drifted off to sleep. I finally knew for sure that he
was asleep when every muscle in his body simultaneously turned to
iron, but even then he didn't scream out.

Adriana Paige
Interstate 70
Western Missouri

I
was coming up on the end of my shift with Alec, which meant that it
was nearly my bedtime and I was beyond exhausted. Frankly all I
wanted to do was curl up in my bed and close my eyes, but Louis had
other ideas.

"Adri,
I'm afraid that I must insist you hand me over to Alec. I have
something important to discuss with him."

I
probably shouldn't have even answered Louis' call. Donovan and his
team of hackers had our new communications equipment up and more or
less running, but they'd encountered more of the 'unexpected
problems' that Alec had warned us against. The hacker who originally
had been in charge of our communications seemed to be passively
resisting helping in the hopes that our jury-rigged solution would
fail and vindicate him for not coming up with it himself.

On
some level I could understand his frustration. He'd wanted to employ
a bulletproof solution that wouldn't be vulnerable to all of the
problems we were currently experiencing, but I didn't have six months
to wait while he got all of the nitpicky little details squared away.
I needed a solution now, one that would let me keep everything Alec
had struggled to build from falling apart. I just needed something
that would last long enough for us to find and kill Dream Stealer.

The
real kick in the teeth was that our unhappy little hacker was right.
The solution we'd chosen to go with was temperamental and seemed like
it was ready to fall over at any moment. I was even less conversant
with the technical details than Donovan was, but as nearly as I could
tell we were involved in a kind of high-tech, programming arms race.

The
Coun'hij's hackers were getting better and better at writing programs
that had a chance to break through the security measures that masked
our cell signal, while our people took more and more desperate
actions to try and keep us from being tracked back to our actual
location. It was like we were building a gigantic house of cards
while the Coun'hij was pulling cards out one at a time from the
bottom of the house. If we did everything right and worked at a
frantic pace then we had a chance to stay ahead of them, but all it
would take was for us to slow down a little or make a mistake and the
Coun'hij would bring the whole house crashing down.

Donovan
had two separate teams of mercenaries currently driving around the
country in RV's with similar communications suites in them. Those
teams turned on their equipment at semi-random times in an effort to
distort the data being picked up by the Coun'hij, but each time I got
on the phone to accept an incoming call the Coun'hij got a little
closer to tracking us down.

Every
IT resource we had access to had been pulled into the battle to keep
control of the cellular networks and the satellite surveillance
systems, but we were slowly being locked out of one critical system
after another.

The
trip to Missouri had taken twice as long as it should have due to the
fact that we'd had to vary our course to avoid making it too easy for
the Coun'hij's people to predict where exactly we were headed. Even
with that and the two million dollars we were spending per day, we
still didn't know for sure that the Coun'hij wouldn't have a big
welcoming committee waiting for us in Kansas City.