Volumes of the Vemreaux Complete Collection: A Dystopian Adventure Trilogy, page 47
Grettel’s sobs grew in intensity and volume as she tried to speak through her tears. “Please…don’t…please don’t….please don’t take us away…from him! We’re all he’s got left! He needs us!”
“Sold?” Stand’s voice seemed very far away from his body. He tried to picture the diligent girl somewhere else, but he could not imagine where in the world she would fit. “Well, that’s…unexpected.” Grettel’s fear turned into grief and she sobbed yet harder. Stand reached out and awkwardly offered another tissue, unable to think of anything better. The three A-bloods smelled very strong, due to Androo’s split lip that exuded a tiny trickle of blood, and Stand was beginning to grow uncomfortable with the powerful stench of sulfur. “Will you girls need a ride home tonight?” he asked chivalrously.
“I live with them, too. I can take them home, no problem.” Androo’s presence was almost forgotten. He could stand up straight, but it cost him much effort.
“Are you alright?” Stand addressed the newest addition he’d seen out in the diner, but had yet to be introduced to.
Androo nodded and extended his hand. “Thanks for helping. Baird’s crazy.” He shook his head as Elle shot him a warning look to keep his mouth shut. “I’m Androo. I’m new here.”
“Stand.” He shook the man’s hand. “I’m a friend of Blue’s.”
Androo’s eyebrow raised. “Didn’t know that girl was capable of making new friends. Huh. Good for her. ’Bout time she got out from under her brother’s thumb.”
“Enough, Androo.” Elle spoke firmly, lifting Grettel to her feet and hugging her as the last of her tears rolled out of her. “Thanks again, Stand. We owe you one.”
Stand paused before exiting the kitchen to rejoin his table. “Is Blue’s new owner…good?” There were more words he wanted to say, but those were the least pathetic he could come up with.
Elle nodded. “The best we could’ve hoped for.”
“Send along my best to her, will you?” Stand’s voice was hollow, but he still managed a weak smile.
“Sure, Stand. Of course,” Elle agreed, though she knew that there was no way to deliver that message to her best friend. Elle sighed as Androo walked past her to get a better look at the damage done to his face in the bathroom mirror. She had not known what to expect from Baird after Blue left them, but there was no way she could have anticipated this.
5
Ground Rules
After Blue’s shower at eight in the morning, she returned to find the bedroom empty. Raised voices from the adjoining room told her where Sam had disappeared to. She tried not to eavesdrop, but she could tell that they were arguing about her in certain parts of the heated conversation. Though, conversation was not an accurate label. Sam was doing most of the yelling with an occasional groan from Liam every now and then. Deciding it would be better not to know, she tucked her dirty clothes under her arm from the previous day and took them down to the laundry room, where she knew another stack would pile up soon enough.
The dry erase board held seven tasks for her to complete by the day’s end, three of which she’d already done. The vacuum was a tricky contraption to figure out, but she’d mastered it the day before with Josephine cringing over her shoulder the entire time if she missed a spot. While most people would find this irritating, Blue appreciated the correction, nervous as the woman made her. She did not want to do a poor job and have nobody tell her. She wanted to be worth the exorbitant amount Liam had paid to purchase her. The only problem with the vacuum was the noise. It was so loud that she was paranoid someone would sneak up behind her. This forced her to vacuum with her back to the wall as often as she could manage it, which did not make for a quick completion of the task.
Dusting was easy, if not a bit boring. Josephine nearly shouted at her when she had tried to smooth the feathers over the paintings that hung in the hallway on her second day in the mansion. Apparently a woman who specialized in cleaning oil paintings came once every other month to clean them and make sure they were up to the highest standard.
That morning, Blue dusted the fixtures in the hallway, giving the portraits a wide berth. She glanced up every now and then at the impeccable images of the royalty. The two that she had not met were smiling down on her with the rest of the perfect family. Killian, the eldest of the royal children, had brown hair with streaks of auburn in it, like Liam. He had broad shoulders, and a kind smile with perfect teeth.
The other portrait that caught Blue’s eye was the woman she had not met, but could not help staring at. Julia Boniface, the deceased princess, smiled down at Blue from her frame. Studying the image with a critical eye, Blue could see the similarities that had given the guys pause when she’d first met them back at the diner. It was as if she was looking at herself up there, but with deliberate changes to her features. Julia’s nose was slightly wider. Her indigo eyes held prideful intrigue, and Blue was certain she would never be able to mimic the easy smile the princess donned. No, while Blue could see the resemblance, she knew she was nothing like the carefree young woman who’d been raised in the lap of luxury. Blue had been raised in cow poop, and there was no undoing that.
It was five in the evening before she saw anyone she’d flown overseas with. Brody came down to the kitchen to teach Blue how to make Liam’s hangover cure in the shortest possible tones. His snide comments and clipped sentences did not bother Blue all that much. She’d come to expect this from him. He was a bit edgy with all of them, but for some reason she brought out the worst in the man.
Once Brody finished mixing up the cure in the blender, he scowled at her. “Don’t you want to know what’s going on? I mean, it literally all revolves around you, yeah? Quit screwing around down here and come on up to Liam’s room.” He turned from Blue before she could respond, though what she could conjure up to say, she wasn’t sure. Glad that she’d finished her chores for the day, Blue washed out the blender and put the food away that Brody left out on the counter. Brody did not wait for her, nor did she expect him to.
Blue climbed the stairs and traversed down the soft cream-colored halls. Her mind was not on her chores, nor the boys she was about to join; she thought of nothing, save the present Sam had given her the night before. Her chores left her mind plenty of room to wander, so she reviewed all of the parts she understood the purpose of thus far. The manual read like a tasty novel to her. Though she did not know how they would all fit together in the end, the promise of purpose teased her to turn page after page.
Blue hesitated when she heard more arguing coming from behind Liam’s shut door. Her ladylike fist betrayed none of her powerful strength as it rapped three times. “Finally,” Brody sneered as he opened the door for her.
Blue thought it best to pretend like he had not spoken, instead of threatening to break his nose again. Being that Liam was still her owner, she did not think it would bode well if she beat down his bodyguard. Perhaps his potential attackers would not take the guard seriously with so obvious an injury. As much as Brody annoyed her, she was growing fond of Liam. “Hey, kitten. We were just talking about you.”
Her swift glance around the room told her much about the prince. The walls and floor were the same as Blue’s room, but the size of the bedroom was twice as big as hers. The fragrance in the air was Liam’s cologne she’d come to recognize, mixed with a heavy perfume coming from the pile of dirty laundry that had yet to be collected. His bed was monstrous. It possessed the same curtains Blue’s did, but his comforter had more brown and beige accents than red in it. The bed was not made, and it looked like Liam had fallen asleep atop his covers. After she finished assessing the room, Blue stared at the carpet in front of her feet to hide her face from the men.
Sam sighed in frustration as he leaned against the wall with his fists shoved in his pockets, but Liam held his hand up. “I’ll tell you what. It gets on all of our nerves that you won’t look at us. You got in a car and on a plane with us, so there’s no reason to pretend you don’t trust us. So here’s the deal: you look at the ground like that and we all stop talking. I mean it. No predator. No calls to your brother. Nothing.” He paused under the weight of Sam’s heavy glare. “I get why you do it around everyone else, but when it’s just us, them’s the rules. Don’t make me play the royalty card.”
Blue took half a minute to consider this as her hands clenched into fists. She fought back the tremble she knew was coming. Slowly, her chin began to lift and her posture straightened, declaring to the room that she was now a person, not a servant.
Brody stiffened.
“Okay.” Blue stared into Liam’s eyes that were kind behind the command. “But I have a few conditions of my own.”
At this, both Sam and Liam looked impressed. A phone rang, and Sam reached into his pocket to silence it without looking at who the caller was.
“By all means.” Liam motioned that she had the open floor.
“None of you talks to me about my family, and that includes the girls.” She could not bring herself to utter their names. The pain still stabbed her even with the mere mention of them. “I’m serious. Don’t even say their names if I’m in hearing range. I left them, and I won’t look back. I’ll be dead after this is all over, and it won’t help to drag everything out by thinking about them. It’s time for the job now, but no one seems to want to talk to me about it. You brought me out here for a reason, so let’s get to it.” Sam started to interrupt, but Blue spoke over him. “Second,” she held her hand up to indicate that she was not finished, and then she pointed at Brody. “This one shuts his mouth or I shut it for him. That’s the last warning I’ll give.” She tried to sound brave and threatening like her brother, even mimicking his stance. Heat pierced her heart as she pictured him, but she kept her chin up.
Now it was Alec’s turn to look impressed. “Sounds reasonable.”
“You hear that, Brody?” Liam questioned seriously. “If you can’t be civil, just shut your mouth. Got it? I know it’s hard on you, but like it or not, we all have to work together on this one.” Brody grudgingly grunted, which satisfied the prince. Liam scratched a sudden itch on his nose. “Okay. Now Blue, I’m really sorry I took off like that. I don’t know how much you’ve been able to pick up from other people’s conversations, but…”
Blue cut in, anxious to get to talk of the predator. “I know that you have a brother named Killian, I’m guessing he’s older. Went to the island for a vacation and missed his check-in. Serious type, so he’s not just messing around. Flights are down on or off the island, so he’s stuck there for now. Everyone’s upset, but no bodies were found and it hasn’t been long enough yet to declare him officially missing. You can’t sleep because you’re worried about him. Alec and Brody are anxious about one of their charges, even though they weren’t even on the same continent when he disappeared. Sam…Sam doesn’t like Killian, but he’s concerned, too. More than he lets on.” She took a breath. “So you want me to go kill the predator and find Killian, but you can’t get me over there yet. Is that it?”
Alec scratched the back of his head as he eyed Sam’s surprised expression. “Yeah, that’s about everything.”
Liam’s phone rang and when he saw the caller ID, he held it up to his ear to receive the call. “Hey, dad.” Liam leaned on his desk as he spoke.
Brody rolled his eyes and lowered his voice just enough to seem discreet, but still loud enough for the others to hear. “Real brilliant. So you can listen in on people’s conversations. Big deal. Are you gonna claim to be psychic now to impress Sam?”
Without losing hold of her anger, Blue spun to him so fast that no one had time to react. One hand grabbing his collar and the other his belt, Blue lifted him an arm’s length off the ground and slammed him down hard on the carpet. The boys all made noises of protest, but Blue was determined. These were her last days, and she would not spend them being spoken to like that.
Blue rolled Brody onto his stomach and twisted his arms behind his back, kneeling on them to keep both of them in place. “Do you know what this is?” She pinched a nerve to the left of his spine that made him yelp. “If I pinch it hard enough, you’ll think I’m stabbing you, but I’m not. It’s just a little girl giving you a playful pinch.” She twisted the nerve and he howled.
“Blue, stop!” Alec tried to pull her off of him, but she remained firmly attached to her prey. Each time he yanked at her, she held onto Brody’s arms, lifting them in an unnatural fashion. He cried out for Alec to drop her, and the man consented after it dawned on him that she was smarter than he’d given her credit for. With no professional training, she was besting each of the military men in the room.
“Oh, man! Blue, you’re gonna break his arm!” Liam shouted into the phone. “Dad, I’ll call you back.”
“No!” She glared up at her newest owner, cringing at the phone in his hand. “If I don’t do this, how will he learn?”
Sam’s voice was the calmest one, but even it was higher pitched than it normally would have been. “If you break anything, he won’t be able to help us.”
“How is making snide comments helping anyone?” she countered, not allowing Brody to get up, but ceasing the punishment of his sensitive nerve. “He may pass as a guard, but how can I trust him to make the right decisions for me out there? I want him out!” She had not seen anyone in that hallway during that hour of the day except the boys, so she did not bother to lower her voice as she reprimanded the men. “Now you listen to me, and you listen good. All of you! I’m giving up my life to free the Vemreaux from the predator. I’m getting nothing outta this deal. My people’ll still be under your thumb long after I’m gone. I didn’t ask for this or to be born in The Way. All I’m asking is for you to shut up around me. It’s your only job, you selfish baby! Do you wanna trade? I don’t care that I look like Julia! I don’t care that Liam deals with things by running away and drinking with some Femreaux who bathes in the worst perfume I’ve ever smelled. Sick, Liam! Have some taste!” She scowled up at them. “I don’t care about any of it! I just want to get it all over with so I can finally go to sleep and never wake up! Can you appreciate that?” she shouted.
Sam knelt down in front of her and shook his head. “Tesoro, can you hear me in there? You have to stop. We’ll deal with Brody.”
“You haven’t,” she argued.
Sam nodded, keeping her gaze. “I will.” Carefully he placed his hands atop hers to lessen her harsh grip. It was the only thing that worked. Liam’s orders and Alec’s attempts to best her did nothing to soften her attack.
When she finally consented to standing up, her severe glare did not leave Brody as he stumbled to his feet, seething at the sudden takedown. He opened his mouth to spew out venom, but Liam cut him off. “I wouldn’t, Brode.”
“New deal,” Blue spoke up. “Since none of you seems to be man enough to follow through, here’s what I’ll do.” She left Sam’s side and moved to Brody’s. He looked down at her like he’d very much like to return the physical and emotional pain she’d caused him. “I won’t break his bones and I’ll keep my head up. But Brody’s standing in front of me because I don’t want to look at all of you anymore. And if he acts up again, instead of breaking his arm, I’ll just give this a little flick.” She demonstrated her new pretty puppet by tapping the nerve she’d just bruised. Brody cried out and fell to his knees, grabbing his spine to rub out the searing sting. “It’s completely in his control how much pain he brings on himself. I think that’s fair, since we agreed I could break his arm, but now, all of a sudden, I can’t.” She looked down on him with cold displeasure. “I won’t be spoken to like that by you anymore.”
Brody stood angrily and gnashed his teeth together as she moved behind him. Alec and Liam both stood with their mouths hanging open.
Blue glowered at Alec. “And by the way, I expected this of them, but you? I keep thinking you’ll be a man of your word. Whatever hardness you think you have? You lost it.” Alec did not respond. “We were talking about why Killian disappeared,” Blue reminded them.
Sam’s phone vibrated in his pocket, but he ignored it.
“Uh, yeah.” Liam covered his face with his large hands and shook his head. “What did we get ourselves into?” he moaned.
Guilt tapped Blue on the shoulder at her outburst, but she ignored it.
Liam’s hands ended up in his hair and laced together atop his head. “So, I guess we don’t really know you all that well. Maybe we should hang out tonight without all this.” He motioned about to indicate the tension in the room, and then glared at Brody. “That was dad calling us down to dinner. There’s the big speech that the king’s giving later tonight, so we need to watch that. Let’s all take things down a notch and watch some TV together. Maybe the king’ll say something helpful. There’s nothing we’re going to figure out like this, anyway. We can shelve it all until tomorrow.”
Blue made to protest at the casual handling of their precious time, but Liam remained firm. “All flights in and out of the island are grounded for now. There’s no use rushing the planning when we can’t even get to the island yet. Dinner’s on, so let’s go eat.” The guys all relaxed a little, and agreed that it was for the best. They filed out of the room and down the stairs, but Blue did not follow them into the dining room. “Come on.” Liam stopped himself from using her nickname. Somehow seeing her poised over his bodyguard like that stole a bit of his playful affection for her. She did not seem the naïve kitten anymore, but was starting to resemble something far more dangerous. Even Sam did not reach for her hand to hold it. Though they all thought they understood what was expected of her, none of them fully appreciated her strength nor her willingness to sacrifice for such an unfair cause. They never stopped to think about the A-bloods in all of it. They were concerned about the few dozen Vemreaux that had been killed. Of all the things that dawned on them, Blue’s temper stood out as the next biggest disquiet.
