Marked (36 page)

"What
do you mean by that?"

"I'm
sorry, that's not something I can tell you right now."

"Then
why did you call?"

"I
called because you're about to make a very big mistake. You're
planning on taking your fiancé and leaving your friends.
That's the right decision, but you need to go now, within the next
fifteen minutes, or everything will unravel."

"How
could you possibly know what I have planned? Do you have some kind of
bug planted in here?"

"No,
my dear. There are no bugs in your vehicle. As to how I know, you're
already starting to suspect, but something is holding you back from
believing."

"If
what I suspect is true, then you should have called ten minutes ago
before I told my friend my plan. It would have done a lot to increase
your credibility."

"Would
it? I think you're just stubborn enough to get everyone you care
about killed just to prove that you make your own decisions. I needed
to call now, after you'd already made up your mind, not earlier when
the decision was still uncertain."

"You're asking me to take a
lot on trust for someone I've met only once, twice if you're to be
believed."

"Indeed,
but I did save your life the last time we met. Surely that buys me
some kind of credibility. If I'd wanted you or your friends dead, I
could have easily accomplished that very thing merely by failing to
intervene on your behalf."

"That's
fair, but before I decide one way or another I need to know why
you're doing this."

"I'm
helping because I'm an incredible fan of you and your fiancé
both."

"That's
not much of an answer."

"I'm
sorry. There is more to my reasoning than that, but the rest of the
answer isn't something that you're capable of understanding. Will you
heed my advice?"

"Yeah.
Call me crazy, but I will. Anything else you want to tell me?"

"Only
that you and your fiancé must go by yourselves. Anyone you
bring with you will be killed and could very well result in
everything being thrown off."

Donovan
looked like he was going to pop a cork. He'd been obviously unhappy
with the idea of me taking Alec away from him and his displeasure had
only gotten worse as my caller had told me that I needed to leave
even before I'd been planning on leaving. The idea that I might
actually agree to this, might deliver Alec into the hands of someone
Donovan didn't know or trust, was obviously too much.

I
sighed. "You don't ask for much, do you?"

My
sarcasm seemed to throw him for a loop. "I would not ask it if
it were not vitally important."

"Yeah,
I know. I wasn't planning on taking anyone else with us."

"Good,
this isn't the last time we will talk."

"Yeah,
unless we're off your script more than you think. All right, unless
you're going to tell me something else—something useful—I
need to go deal with an impending mutiny."

Donovan
waited until I hung up before speaking. "I know that I agreed to
follow your orders, but I must protest this decision in the strongest
way possible. This is likely one gigantic trap."

"It's
a possibility."

"And
yet you are going to go through with your plan of leaving the rest of
the convoy?"

"Yes,
Donovan, I am. I can't explain why, but for the first time in weeks I
feel like I'm doing the right thing."

"You're
acting on faith, Mistress Paige. I understand the desire to put your
fate in the hands of someone else, the desire to give up the crushing
responsibility that you've been forced to bear, but this isn't the
right choice. Don't give up now."

That
hurt more than I'd expected it to. I'd thought Donovan had been proud
of me, thought that he'd been happy with my efforts not to collapse
under the stress this time around. Apparently I'd been wrong. I'd
given up once and therefore I'd failed to measure up. I knew I was no
Alec Graves, but apparently I was much less in Donovan's eyes than
I'd realized.

"It's
nice to know how you really feel, Donovan. Now that we have that out
of the way, are you going to tie me up on the bed next to Alec or are
you going to get out of my way? Those are your only two options,
because I'm done talking about this."

Donovan
stared at me with a stiffness that he hadn't displayed since my first
few days at the estate. Donovan was always a little stiff with
everyone, but this was more than that. This was Donovan's way of
retreating into propriety, his way of keeping everyone around him
safely confined in little boxes where they belonged.

"I
will not break my sworn word, Mistress Paige. Nor will I attack a
woman who has offered me no harm, no matter how much I might disagree
with her actions."

"Well
then, I guess we're not as different as we might have thought. You've
got your own brand of blind faith too, yours is just in the rules of
courtesy."

I
brushed past Donovan without another word. I knew that if I survived
I was going to regret what I'd just said, but I was too angry to care
right then.

"James,
could you please strap Alec to the rigid stretcher that has wheels on
the ends of the handles? I'm going to need to move Alec and that's
the only way I can think of to do it by myself, especially since I
only have one working hand."

He
gave me an odd look, but he didn't argue, which was a miniature
miracle in and of itself. I pulled my phone back out as I walked up
to Ruby who was driving again.

"Ruby,
be looking for a spot where we can safely pull off to the side of the
road, please. It doesn't need to be for long, but it needs to happen
in the next five minutes."

Ruby
opened her mouth as though she was going to ask me what was going on,
and then closed her mouth again and simply nodded. Addison wasn't as
timid.

"Where
are you taking Alec?"

"Despite
knowing full well that we are in the middle of a secure perimeter
established by the Coun'hij, a perimeter that she can't possibly
escape on her own, Mistress Paige is going to leave the convoy and
strike out on her own with Master Alec."

I
shot Donovan a dirty look, but before I could respond Addison jumped
back in. "No, that's not acceptable. Samantha would never
countenance something like that."

"In
case you've forgotten, Samantha Graves is currently in a coma, and up
until recently she couldn't have cared less about what happened to
Alec or Rachel either one. I don't think her wishes should weigh into
this decision."

"She's
back now and eventually she's going to wake up again. When that
happens I'm not going to be the one to tell her that you ran off with
her son and got him killed."

A
phone was ringing, but I ignored it.

"Fine,
then don't tell her. I'm sure Donovan will happily tell her how
foolish I was."

"I
don't know why Donovan has let things get this far, but I'm not going
to just stand by and let you walk off with Alec."

"Don't
try and stop me, Addison. I'm warning you."

"You
don't have your precious gun, Adri. I may be old and half crippled,
but I'm still a shape shifter. I'm still going to be more than strong
and fast enough to stop you."

I
shifted slightly, moving my weight over the balls of my feet.

"Stop
right now!"

James
didn't sound amused at the fact that his mom and I had been seconds
away from trying to kill each other with our bare hands. He held up a
burner phone, brandishing it as though it was a magic talisman that
could force the two of us into compliance with his will.

"Go
ahead, Rach. I think we've got their attention finally."

Based
on the looks on Addison, Andrew and Donovan's faces, I wasn't the
only one he'd taken off guard. It wasn't until I heard Rachel's voice
that I realized the phone was on speaker mode.

"What
just happened, Adri?"

"Addison
just threatened to throw down against me."

"No,
that's not what I'm talking about. Something big just changed."

Donovan
cleared his throat. "Mistress Paige just took a call from an
unknown individual who counseled her to leave the rest of us and
strike out on her own. She wants to heed his advice against the
better judgment of every other person here."

"Hmm,
so that's not what changed. For a minute there I was worried that
you'd decided to stay with the rest of the caravan. You're still
taking Alec with you, right?"

I
was experiencing a weird sense of déjà vu. It took me a
couple of tries to respond. "Yeah, that was my plan. Are you
saying that I'm right? That I need to leave just like I'd originally
planned on doing?"

"Five
minutes ago I would have said yes, but I'm not so sure now, Adri.
You've changed everything somehow. All I know is that before
everything went dark, you leaving was the best path. Now I'm not so
sure. You're still planning on taking James, right?"

"I
was never planning on taking James. This is supposed to just be Alec
and me, especially after the call I just had. He said that anyone
else I brought along would be killed."

Rach
didn't seem to hear me. "James, you'll go with her, won't you?"

Donovan
didn't give James a chance to respond. "Mistress Rachel, your
place is with us. When will you be returning home?"

"I'm
not sure I'll ever be returning home, Donovan."

"That
is unacceptable. Your mother needs you."

For
the briefest of moments the hurt child seeped through Rachel's
newfound confidence. "My mother has never needed me, Donovan. I
doubt she even knows that I'm gone."

"You're
wrong, Mistress Rachel. She is much improved, she seems to be back to
her old self and she's going to need you even more once Alec is
gone."

Rachel
was silent for several seconds. "You do know your audience,
Donovan. Out of all the things you could have possibly trolled out
there to shake my resolution, that is the only one that had a chance
of succeeding."

"Have
I succeeded? Will you return to us?"

"No,
Donovan. We all have sacrifices to make—apparently mine are
more numerous than I'd realized."

"I
will not allow Mistress Paige to take your brother away."

"Poor
Donovan. So scared of facing a future without your wards, a future
where you've failed in the task my father laid across your shoulders
so many years ago. You can't save Alec now. Nothing you can do will
stop the inevitable from playing out. You need to let Adri take him
away. Her plan is the best option we have left to us."

"It
will work then? She'll convince everyone he's still alive even after
he's dead?"

Donovan
sounded like someone who'd lost their faith, someone who was
desperately looking for
something
to believe in.

"I
can't see that, Donovan."

"What
can you see, Rach? If I go with Adri am I really going to die like
she said?" James sounded oddly detached. There was none of the
anger that had characterized him for so long.

"I
don't know, James. I know what was supposed to happen a few minutes
ago, but that's gone dark to me and with every second that passes we
are further and further away from the future I thought I could see."

"You're
not coming off as a very good seer, Rach. If you really want to
convince people to go throw themselves into hopeless situations you
need to practice your delivery."

"I
never said I was a seer, James. I'm not here to take away people's
choices. I'm just trying to nudge you all to the best possible
outcome."

"The
best outcome for who?"

"I'm
not sure. Will you go with Adri?"

"In
the future you could see before everything went dark, did I survive
what comes next?"

Rachel's
voice was strangely gentle when she answered. "It doesn't
matter, James. The future isn't set in stone. The real question is
whether or not you trust me when I say that you need to go with them
or things will go much worse for everyone you care about."

Addison
apparently felt like the conversation had gone far enough. "Nobody
is going anywhere. Alec is staying here, as is my son. If you really
think you can…"

"Be
quiet, Mother. I'm going with them. Ruby, get this bus pulled over.
Adri, call up Mallory and get us a car. You heard Rachel, we're
getting further and further away from the future she's trying to
guide us down."

Adriana Paige
Interstate 64
Western Kentucky

Donovan and Addison weren't any happier about the fact that I was leaving and
taking Alec with me, but now that I had James backing me up there
wasn't anything they could do about it. We'd been all getting along
and living by the rule of law for so long that I think we'd nearly
forgotten that James was the only healthy hybrid left among the core
leadership group. Now that his mind was made up, even Addison could
see the futility of trying to argue with him.

My
call with Mallory was short and to the point. I asked her to detach a
single SUV and have it stop behind our RV while the rest of the
convoy went on ahead, albeit at a much reduced speed. The vehicle
exchange went without any problems, and five minutes after James had
decided to throw in with me, the SUV's previous occupants were safely
inside of the RV with Donovan and the rest, and James, Alec and I
were driving cross-country with the SUV's lights off.

We
drove the first half hour in silence, James because he was
concentrating on picking a path through the terrain that wouldn't
leave us with a flat tire, and me because I was so worried about what
the jostling might be doing to Alec. Once James found a small country
road things got better and he was able to speed up at the same time
that the ride got much smoother.