The Ballad of Aramei (39 page)

Viktor could probably get out if he really wanted to bad enough.

The rest of us have migrated upstairs and are all standing around on the sharpest of pins and needles.

“I still can’t get her on the phone,” I say. I grip my phone tight in my fist and move to smash it against the wall out of anger, but don’t in case Adria does try to call me back. And her mind…it doesn’t feel closed off to me intentionally. It feels…odd…like she’s unable to communicate with me.

I’m going out of my mind!

Daisy bursts through the front door, shaking everyone from the furniture.

“Where’s Harry?” she shouts, coming around the corner, her curly blond hair whipping about her frantic face.

“We thought you’ve been with him?” Nathan says standing beside me.

“No!” she screams. “I haven’t seen him since this afternoon. But about thirty minutes ago, I got a telepathic message from him, telling me to meet him here and that it’s deathly urgent—Where is he?!”

Before I have a chance to answer, the room goes quiet as Daisy’s head snaps around to face the door.

She runs back out and we follow fast behind her.

I gently push her aside and head down the porch steps as I stare off at the figure coming around from behind Harry’s car parked at the farthest end of the driveway.

Harry is carrying Adria in his arms towards us.

I run after them and stop just as Harry stops. We look at each other, Harry and I, for a powerful moment and then I glance down at Adria, whose eyes are open, but she seems oblivious to me.

“Isaac…,” Harry says carefully.

“Harry…,”

He hesitates and adjusts Adria within his arms. I keep wanting to reach out and take her from him, but I can’t yet and I don’t know why.

Harry takes a deep breath.

“Aramei’s dead, Isaac,” he says and my heart stops. “Adria killed her.”

29

ALL OF THE VOICES around me have been blocked from my ears…or, maybe they just aren’t saying anything anymore. I hear nothing. Not the breeze combing through the trees, or the traffic in the distance, or Ashe’s chains rattling violently as he tries to break free, or even Viktor’s sadistic laughter that makes him sound all the more like the lunatic he is.

I feel sluggish movement behind me, but I can’t comprehend what’s causing it. It takes several long, ominous seconds before all of the sound and movement rushes back into my consciousness and I’m jolted awake as if I’d been punched in the face.

That sluggish movement from before was everyone clambering from the house, but my head was translating it all in slow-motion. I see two figures take off towards the woods.

Finally, I notice Harry still standing in front of me holding Adria in his arms.

I snatch her away from him.

“My God…oh my fucking God….”

This isn’t happening. Not like this. I have been plotting all this time against my father so that I could abolish his dictatorship once and for all…but not like this!

Adria is coherent, but traumatized. She moves her body around in my arms so that she’s upright now, straddling her legs tight around my waist. She sobs into my neck, her tears wet against my burning skin, her body trembling against mine. I hold her tight, wrapping my arms firmly around her back, crushing her; the back of her head cradled within the palm of my own trembling hand.

“I-I had to d-do it!” she wails, the words sputtering from her lips. “That’s what she wanted, Isaac! She was suffering! She’s been suffering inside her own mind for over two hundred years! I
had
to help her!” Her body quakes, racking against mine violently.

“I know, baby,” I say softly, trying to calm her down. “I know…Adria, please don’t be like this. You did the right thing—.”

“I KILLED HER!” she roars, pulling her head away from my neck. “ISAAC, I SNAPPED HER NECK! I
MURDERED
A PERSON!”

I know she’s not angry at me. It’s obvious just by the extreme pain in her eyes that she’s still trying to believe what she’s done, trying to convince herself that she
had
to do it.

I shake my head. “No, baby, listen to me…Aramei hasn’t been a person for a long time. You didn’t kill
anyone
; you killed her pain. Nothing more.” My voice sounds breathless in my own ears.

“You have to get her out of here, Isaac,” Nathan says in a grave voice behind me. “Bro, you know what this means. She can’t stay here. None of us can.”

I break away from Adria’s pain quickly because I know I have to.

“Harry! Get her out of here!” I go to pass Adria back to him, but she latches onto me. “TAKE HER! HARRY!”

“No! I’m staying here!”

Adria’s feet touch the ground and she grabs me around the waist. I thrust her face in my hands, her tears streaming under my thumbs. “You have to go with Harry! My father will kill you! And I can’t fight him if you’re here—I’ll be too worried about you!” Sobs rack my chest.

I truly feel like this is the last time I will ever see her again. Either my father will find and kill her, or he’s going to kill me when I face him. Either way, I will never see her again….

“NO!” Adria’s eyes turn black and the sheer hostility in her voice causes me to freeze. “You’re not going to die because of me! LISTEN TO ME!” She grabs my face, her claws grazing the skin on my cheeks and causing a trickle of blood to trail down my neck. “This won’t be a debate. I don’t care that you’re Alpha. I don’t care that Trajan will kill me. I’m not backing down from this, Isaac. Not for you or for anyone else. If you fight him, I fight him
with
you!”

Xavier runs up behind us with Rachel and Alex. I don’t turn to look at him even though I know he’s seeking my attention. Right now it’s just me and Adria and…I-I don’t know what to do…

“AHHH!” I scream into the night, balling my clawed hands into vicious fists out in front of me. Anger and indecision and fear of what my father will do to Adria overwhelms every inch of me.

I sense that everyone backs away except for Adria. Their footsteps shuffle densely in my ears and every other sound around me is stifled, leaving only the sound of my blood pumping violently through my veins, pounding in my ears, and my own scream bounces around inside my skull. Adria, unafraid, walks up to me and says softly, “I love you so much, Isaac. I do. We’re in everything together; don’t you understand?” She brings her arms up to her chest, folding her hands underneath her chin and she presses her body against mine, her head lying on my heart. “In everything together,” she goes on, her voice breaking, “we live and fight and die together.”

Her words sting me. Reluctantly, I wrap my arms around her and bury my lips in her hair.

“Bro,” Nathan says carefully, “come on man, we have to do something.” I feel his hand on my shoulder from behind.

“Dria,” Alexandra says stepping up.

Adria pulls away from me slowly to see her sister.

“I just got you back,” Alexandra says. “If you get yourself killed over a guy, I’m going to be so frickin’ pissed.”

Adria chokes out a tear-filled laugh, unable to resist her sister’s charms. And for the first time since Alexandra has been here, I find myself glad that she is. Without letting Adria see, I nod my heartfelt thanks to her sister and her eyes smile back at me.

“Nathan’s right, bro,” Xavier says. “I don’t know what you plan to do, but the one thing I think we can all agree on is that we can’t stay here.”

I nod to myself a few times, thinking and agreeing.

Harry stands off to the side with Daisy. I don’t like him anymore. This is his fault.

“We have to get away from the town,” I announce. “Not only to protect the humans in it from all-out war, but we need someplace where we can stay until I come up with a plan.”

Nathan and Xavier nod and continue to listen fixedly.

Adria’s head jerks up like she just thought of something. “Isaac, what about the cave? The one your father kept Aramei in when you took me to see her the first time?”

Alexandra wraps her arms around Adria from the side and they both stand there together, waiting for me.

“Yes,” I say, “that’s actually the perfect place. Our father would never think to look there.”

“And he never uses the same place twice,” Nathan adds.

“Awesome,” Xavier says, “Then I say we get the hell out of here before he finds out.”

“Wait?” Alexandra says. “You mean Trajan doesn’t know yet?”

I shake my head. “If he knew,
we
would know.”

“Isaac?” Harry says and I whirl around at him.

“You stay back,” I growl, pointing my finger at him. “In fact, I think it’s better that you leave, Harry.”

Harry blinks a few times, stunned. Daisy steps up beside him, thrusting his hand into hers and a hard line appears on her mouth as she looks at me.

“Daisy,” I say, intolerant of her inevitable resistance, “Harry knew this was going to happen. He’s known all along.” My voice begins to rise and I point at him again, though my eyes haven’t left my sister’s. “Harry helped her do this and he could’ve easily stopped it!”

Adria moves out of Alexandra’s arms and steps in front of me, placing the palms of her hands against my chest. “Baby, no, please listen to me.”

Daisy’s trying to hold down her beast; her teeth are grinding harshly behind her lips, her breathing is becoming more rapid and unsteady.

Adria’s rapt voice brings me back to her.

“He didn’t know what I was going to do, Isaac. He didn’t know.”

I look to and from Adria and Harry, searching for an explanation.

Harry shakes his head. “She’s telling you the truth,” he says. “She was supposed to
infect
Aramei…not
kill
her.”

I blink back, stunned as much as Harry was before.

“
What
?” Nathan says. “How is it you couldn’t
see
that!?”

Harry breathes in deeply and his gaze strays toward the trees before falling right back on me.

“It doesn’t always happen the way it’s supposed to,” he clarifies. “And I’ll face the consequences of my failure, later. But not from you or anyone else.”

Adria and Daisy’s heads whip around to Harry at the same time.

“Harry, what’s that supposed to mean?” Daisy says.

He walks up and takes her shoulders into his hands, looking upon her with calming eyes. “That’s not important; right now the only thing any of us needs to be doing is getting as far away from here as possible.” Then he looks back at me, seeking my approval. “That is if you don’t care I come along for the ride.”

I’m still thoroughly pissed at Harry, because after all, he knew Adria was going to do
something
to Aramei and whether it was killing her or infecting her, the result as far as my father is concerned would likely have turned out the same way. I don’t know. We’ll never know. But right now, Adria needs all of the protection she can get.

I don’t answer Harry directly because I can’t. A verbal response just feels too forgiving at the moment, but when I don’t force him away, he’s fully aware of my decision.

Daisy breathes a quiet sigh of relief and laces her arm around his.

“What about Eva?” I say, looking to both Adria and Harry.

Adria lowers her eyes, indicating another unfortunate outcome and I’m not sure how many more of these I can take.

“She was a Praverian,” Adria finally says.

It seemed that Harry was about to be the one to tell me this, but Adria took over for him.

“I drank her Soul,” Harry says. “She revealed herself to me. I think much like Aramei, Evangeline was tired and just wanted to be at peace and so I drank her Soul.”

He doesn’t seem remorseful because of her death, but I get the distinct feeling that he is relating to how Eva felt.

I wonder just how old Harry really is himself.

“No one ever goes inside the cabin except the servants,” Adria adds. “Your father might never know about Aramei until he gets back here.”

Adria chokes out another sobbing fit and Alexandra hugs her tighter. Adria may be strong and she may be able to come to terms with what she’s done sooner than some, but she’s still devastated over it. She cries into Alexandra’s shirt for several long seconds until she forces herself to suck it up.

I let her have her moment with her sister; there will be more, after all.

I look out at everyone else, my sisters and brothers, Rachel and even Sebastian who has been standing beside her the entire time (yes, I find it interesting, too, but this isn’t the time) and I say, “I guess the real question here is, whose side are you all on?”

Nathan pats me on the back. “It’s not even a question, bro.”

Xavier steps up and smirks. “I go where you go.”

“Me too,” Daisy says.

I glance at Sebastian and Rachel.

Sebastian points his finger in the air. “This is and will always be my family, so I’m in.”

Rachel grins wickedly from the side. “I go where the eye candy goes,” she says, and although that’s not much of a loyal response, like always I have to set aside her Vargas lineage.

The few others left who have always lived in the house with us, but were refugees and related to no one, step up to declare their loyalty to me.

“Let’s get on the road,” Alexandra says, holding Adria’s hand. “The only one here I’m worried about is my baby sister.”

More Vargas sensibility, but entirely forgivable.

Xavier’s mouth lifts into a grin as he looks across at Alexandra. “I totally defended your honor with that bitch-ass ex-boyfriend of yours today, not to mention, when I rushed into the depths of Hell to try and break you free from that crazy white-haired chick—I still don’t have your appreciation?”

Alexandra rolls her eyes and her head falls back. “The depths of Hell? Really?” She shakes her head. “Dramatic, aren’t we?”

“What about Viktor and Ashe?” Nathan says to me.

I have been thinking about what to do with them all along.

I look toward the basement where on the other side of it they are still chained to the wall.

“Adria,” I say and she looks up from Alexandra’s chest, “you have five minutes to grab whatever’s most important to you and get in the Jeep.”