Unforgettable (Talented Saga #6) (17 page)

It was difficult to retain a modicum
of dignity when passing through the imposing entryway; I felt like
a kid gaping at the oversized toys in a luxury toy store. Though
the outside of the manor looked straight out of the middle ages,
the inside was like something out of a catalogue on modern living.
The furniture was sleek, the floors a gleaming polished mahogany
that couldn’t be bought in this day and age. On the walls were
various moving, live-action screens created by the grand masters of
the medium. Even knowing as little as I did about art, I was aware
that many of them were celebrated works, akin to the old world’s
Starry Night or Mona Lisa. Only the extraordinarily wealthy could
afford to own a single one of the renowned pieces hanging the
entire length of the hallway. Whether Victoria was related to the
Poaching families or not, she was definitely loaded.

As we wound through the lower-level
maze that ostensibly led to a conference room, Talia slid her small
hand into mine. Her fingers were warm and comforting, making my
heart feel a little lighter. Guilt over my part in Kenly’s
abduction inched back into a corner of my mind where it could be
forgotten for the time being. Talia had that effect on me—making me
feel like, no matter what else was happening, everything would be
okay. Because I had her.

“
Erik?”
Talia asked tentatively, testing the bond to see if my mind
was open.

“
Yes,
beautiful?”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw her
smile. I loved her smile. I loved making her smile. And I hated
that I was the reason she rarely did so anymore. Well, one of the
reasons. Still, I was supposed to be her rock. I was supposed to be
there for her, and lately I’d been slacking on my duties. Right
then, I resolved to step it up. To be stronger, for her.

“
This is really going to
happen, right? I mean, Victoria is going to make sure this rescue
happens? She isn’t going to change her mind?”
Talia asked.

My girlfriend knew full well that I
had no more insight into the inner workings of Victoria Walburton’s
brain than she did, but I appreciated that she was talking to me
about her concerns. As I felt the comfort of our connection, I
realized that I really needed to keep my mind open to her more
often. Regardless of how unmanly it was to think, she was the
sunshine to my storm clouds.

“
No, Tals. She won’t change
her mind. She’s already making plans. Don’t worry, we’ll get Kenly
back,”
I promised.

Talia squeezed my hand, sending the
thought of me kissing her. Unsurprisingly, my adrenaline spiked.
Since the very first day I met Talia, she had that effect on me.
Part of me wished I’d waited to experience all the physical stuff
with her for the first time. The rest was all a waste of my time.
Even though I didn’t know her back then, and she wasn’t always
mine, I should have been more patient while waiting for the love of
my life to come along.

“
Here we are,” the agent
named Chaz said, coming to a stop in front of a carved wooden door
identical to the last twelve we’d bypassed. It stretched up well
above my head and was wider than my arm span, as if people who
lived in castles were all enormous. “Councilwoman Walburton is
waiting for your call.”

“
She obviously didn’t trust
me to keep my promise,”
Talia sent,
rolling her eyes up at me.

“
Do you blame her?”
I sent back teasingly.

“
Agent Lyons,” Chaz
addressed Talia, “You will be seated at the head of the table.
Agents Kelley and Meadows, you will sit on either side of
her.”

Was this guy serious? This was a
little much, even for Victoria

“
Assigned seats?” Brand
muttered, giving voice to my thoughts. “What are we,
thirteen?”

I laughed, though the rigid Chaz
didn’t look the least bit amused. Clearly, the guy needed to get
out of these stone walls more. Viktor had yet to say a word thus
far. Being castle agents, what I’d already begun to think of them
as, was apparently detrimental to everyday social
skills.

The large, oval conference table sat
in the middle of a wood-paneled room with wallscreens on three of
the four walls. There were enough chairs to seat twenty, but Chaz
and Viktor did not join us. The castle agents stayed near the back,
like sentinels watching over our group. Their odd detachment made
me wonder why they were really there. Were they babysitting us? Was
Victoria concerned I’d go rogue? She’d been sending me and the
others out on missions to track the Created for weeks, and we
always came back sans killing spree. So the added security was
odd.

Without needing to dip in to her
thoughts, I could tell Talia was thinking the same thing. She kept
eyeing the two agents like they were the enemy, about to pounce on
us at any moment. Her mistrust leaked into me, and suddenly I
wanted them out of the room.

Steady,
I coached myself, not wanting to validate any suspicions
regarding my mental soundness.

Brand, Talia, and I took our assigned
seats, with the others filling the empty chairs closest to where we
sat. As I watched everyone getting settled, I noticed Willa
clinging desperately to Honora’s hand. Every so often she would
visibly tighten her grasp, but Honora didn’t utter a word of
complaint. Riley kept rubbing his girlfriend’s back reassuringly.
Curious, I took a quick peek into Willa’s mind, just to see why her
hazel eyes were large as dinner plates.

I instantly regretted my
decision.

Unlike Honora, Willa was not afraid of
us. In fact, we barely registered on her radar. She was channeling
Kenly, experiencing a flood of emotions that ranged from
mortification to fury. And, suddenly, I was too. Every ounce of her
indignity and anger streamed into me. It was an odd sensation, not
seeing what the target saw, but instead feeling what she
felt.

Talia’s mentee was a
fighter, I had to give her that. Whatever was happening to her was
bad enough to induce shame, but that shame was making her livid.
Kenly wanted to kill her captors. Not figuratively, either.
Really
kill her captors.
And Kenly’s rage was concentrated on one person in
particular.

Truly grasping the extent of her
situation, I wanted out of that damned conference room. I wanted to
attempt to View her, and it was impossible in there. Remote Viewing
was one of my more sporadic Created Talents, not something I could
call on in a snap, and I needed a calm, tranquil atmosphere without
distractions for it to work properly.

“
Erik?”

I blinked several times, unaware that
I’d lapsed into a daze.

“
Yeah? Sorry, Tals,” I
said, turning to look at my girlfriend. She had a vice grip on my
arm with one hand, looking like she was about to slap me with her
other one.

Dammit.
How many times had she called my name?

“
You okay, man?” Brand
asked, his eyes showing genuine concern.

My gaze darted to where Willa sat
hunched over in her chair, hands furiously twisting in her lap. My
heart went out to the poor girl. She was going through real agony,
feeling as though she owed it to Kenly to stay with her.

“
Fine, Brand. Just zoned
out for a minute,” I said, taking a beat longer than I should have
to answer him.

Feeling torn, I wasn’t sure whether or
not I should tell them about what I’d just felt from Kenly via
Willa. I was worried about drawing unwanted attention and a barrage
of questions to someone who was already on the edge. Willa looked
like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She was gnawing
on her lower lip so intently that a tiny smear of blood had
appeared in the corner of her mouth.

Talia followed my gaze and sucked in a
deep breath, obviously putting together the pieces and
understanding the big picture. Because I know my girlfriend better
than she knows herself, I knew exactly what she was about to
do.

“
Don’t
, Talia,”
I said, my tone shaper
than intended.
“Please, don’t do it. You
don’t want to see it. Feel it. Whatever. Just don’t. Okay? Let’s
get through this meeting, and then I’ll tell you about it. And I’ll
view Kenly. We need to hurry up and get through this so I can try
to see her.”

Talia’s beautiful purple eyes searched
mine, looking for answers she didn’t want. Answers I didn’t want to
share with her. I didn’t ever want Talia to feel a modicum of the
anguish that both Kenly and Willa were experiencing.

“
Is she hurt?”
Talia finally sent back, chewing her own lip just
like Willa.

“
No. I don’t think so
anyway. She’s scared, though. But more than that, she’s pissed. And
being pissed is good. It’ll get her through all of
this.”

“
Sorry to interrupt you two
lovebirds gazing adoringly at each other,” Frederick of all people
said. “But we should really get this meeting started.”

Truthfully, I was surprised Brand
hadn’t been the first to make a comment, with far more bite than
Frederick’s. Making asinine remarks to Talia was his thing. One
glance at Talia’s other side, and I knew why. Brand and Penny wore
twin masks of concentration, a telltale sign they were having their
own private conversation. They were new to the whole mind-speak
thing, and Talia’s best friend and her boyfriend seemed to be under
the impression that it worked better if they looked constipated.
Regardless of how many times I told Brand that looking like you
were in dire need of a restroom didn’t make the transmissions
clearer, the guy never listened to me.

“
Sorry, Frederick,” I said,
trying to ignore the spectacle. “We’re good down here. Ready when
everyone else is.”

Evidently the British agents had been
waiting for this cue. Which would’ve been helpful to know five
minute prior.

Behind me, either Chaz or Viktor
clicked a button that caused the wallscreen at the front of the
room to turn on. Instead of seeing Victoria sitting at the desk in
her office at UNITED headquarters, as I’d expected, a duplicate of
our conference room appeared. The effect was as though we were
looking in to a reflection. Where our table ended, the one on the
other side of the connection began. The only difference was that a
group of young agents didn’t sit around the other table. The entire
UNITED council did.

Shit.

I glanced at our three new additions
to witness their reactions. Willa, still lost in Kenly’s head,
didn’t even look up. Honora stared at the councilmembers with that
same wide-eyed mix of adoration and fear she’d given me and my
friends. Riley sat blank-faced. Only the churning in his bizarre
eyes belied his reaction. They’d morphed from flames to
whirlpools.

“
Mr. Wyld,” Victoria began,
addressing Riley first. “On behalf of the council, I want to thank
you for coming forward.” Her tone was frosty and seemed to
contradict her statement. “Agent Lyons has asked that you and your
girlfriend, Wilhelmina Tuggard, be included in this
mission.”

Riley cleared his throat before
answering.

“
Um, yes. Thank you,
Councilwoman.”

“
It is our understanding
that this auction is to take place tomorrow,” said another
councilwoman. Her name was Amberly, if I was recalling correctly.
She’d ignored Riley’s statement, instead addressing the
team.

“
This means we have
precious little time,” Amberly continued, as though we might be
unaware of the fact. “Other members of the UNITED taskforce are
headed your way, as we speak. We also have strike teams on standby,
but it is our hope that they will not be necessary. With the Treaty
vote approaching, an assault will not do us any favors when it
comes to public opinion.”

Again, she said it like we didn’t know
the potential ramifications. Like Victoria hadn’t already given us
the same speech. Since I wasn’t acquainted with Amberly in the same
way I was with Victoria, I stopped myself from voicing my
frustrations. She was wasting what little time we had, but it was
her right to do so. Unfortunately, Talia didn’t practice the same
restraint.

“
If we need to use brute
force, then we should,” Talia interjected. “These people are
dealing in kidnapped Talents.”

It was as if uttering the words
brought out her initial horror all over again.

I squeezed Talia’s hand, urging her to
keep calm. Everyone on our side of the wallscreen felt the same
way, but fighting with the council was not the way to go. They’d
been complacent for this long where the Poachers were concerned,
and I didn’t want them deciding that the whole mission was not
worth losing face with the public.

“
I know that better than
you do, Agent Lyons,” Amberly said calmly. “But those heads of
nations whom we need the votes of to renew the Treaty? Many are
clients of the Poachers. Angering them now is not what we want.
That being said, I think we can all agree,” Amberly glanced around
the council table for confirmation, “that if it comes to an actual
assault, then so be it. We cannot allow any of the Created to fall
into the wrong hands. Private ownership of any individual is a
revolting idea. But the Created are akin to deadly
weapons.”