Wicked Sun: Vampires & Vices No. 3, page 15
“I know you’re there,” he calls out, eyes trained on the glass. “I can’t see you, but I can hear your heartbeats. All of them.”
Bella snorts, and Camilla tells her to hush.
My stomach twists into awful barbed wire knots as I force myself to sit down and keep calm. But I’m anything but calm. Adrian isn’t afraid for his own life, he’s afraid for mine. And suddenly, his fear envelops me as well. Should I be afraid? What does he know about them that I haven’t learned already? Mom’s frantic voice comes to mind, and I wish I could be anywhere but here right now.
“Sit tight,” Tate instructs the group, then he and Camilla leave the way we came and a few seconds later stride into Adrian’s interrogation room.
Adrian gazes at them with a disgusted grimace. “I know what you’re here to do,” he snarls, “so why don’t you just kill me and get it over with.”
Bella clicks her tongue in disappointment. “A vampire with a death wish? Well, that’s no fun.”
I shoot her a dirty look, and she laughs. “Careful, Eva,” she taunts, “you don’t want to give yourself away. Your precious boyfriend would die for nothing.”
CHAPTER 25
I ignore Bella and focus on the three people in the cell. Tate tilts his head, assessing Adrian’s words. “I’m not here to kill you,” he says with a sly grin. “Well, not yet anyway.”
“Stop wasting my time,” Adrian replies.
“Oh, did we interrupt a pressing engagement?” Tate asks. “Because as I recall, you were hanging around our party last night. You came to us, not the other way around.”
Adrian glowers at Tate. “I’ve been hunting you for ages, don’t act so surprised.”
“But you weren’t hunting me last night,” Tate chuckles. “You were trying to get to Eva. What’s your plan then? Kill her? Take her for yourself?”
Adrian says nothing, but I’ll admit, I’m conflicted. I don’t want them to hurt Adrian, and I don’t want him to give in to them, but I’m curious about the answers as well.
“Where is the Gateway?” Camilla snaps.
“There you go. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Adrian laughs. “That’s what you’re really after. The elusive Gateway. You know we found it, and you want me to tell you where it is?”
“Of course!”
They fall silent, eager for his answer. I’ve never heard of this Gateway before, and have absolutely no clue what it could be. In my lessons at the Casa, nobody has mentioned that word to me. I peer around at the others, and they’re all eagerly on the edge of their seats. So I guess I’m the odd one out.
“Okay, I’ll tell you. . .” he pauses for dramatic effect, “nothing.”
“You don’t want to do that,” Camilla seethes.
“Oh, believe me, I do.”
“Did you forget that you’re at our mercy now?”
“What mercy?” he scoffs. “You neph think you’re so high and mighty, but you’re no better than the monsters you hunt.”
Tate steps forward. “If you’re so quick to call yourself a monster, then why shouldn’t we kill you after all?”
“Because I’ve got the answers you seek.” Adrian’s eyes grow dark, and his voice raspy. “You’re right, Tate, I’m a monster. And when I get out of here, I am going to show you just how evil I can be. That wife of yours? Bianca? Oh, I’ll start with her, but I won’t stop there. Your children? Bella and Greyson? I’ll hunt them down too. And when I do, I’ll make sure they know their father is responsible for their deaths.”
“Sick bastard,” Bella mutters from beside me, growing agitated.
“Let’s kill him now and get this over with,” Greyson agrees. There’s a rattle to his voice I’ve never heard before. He’s afraid. And he should be.
“Trust your father and your Nana,” Bianca whispers to her children. “They know what they’re doing. Adrianos can’t die until he gives us the information we need, but once he does, we’ll take him out.”
“What’s the Gateway?” I ask, and they all turn on me with closed expressions.
“Have it your way,” Camilla’s tone is clipped as she leaves Tate there with Adrian and returns to our viewing room seconds later. She points to me. “Don’t go anywhere. We’ll get to you once we wear him down.” And then she points to Bianca and Bella. “One of you. Bella, I think you’re ready, but if you’d rather have your mother––”
“I can do it!” Bella jumps up eagerly and follows her grandmother out the door.
“You really think she’s ready?” Fredrico asks his sister, and she nods reluctantly. Then everyone grows quiet as Bella and Camilla join Tate.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to be seeing, but nothing happens. Bella’s smug expression makes me think something is going on, but maybe it’s meant for Adrian’s eyes only?
“Ah, the infamous Bella De Luca-Tate,” Adrian says, “Good to get a visual on you again.”
“Shut your mouth,” Tate snaps.
Bella turns to her father. “Daddy, it’s not working.”
“Vision-warps don't work on me, Daddy,” Adrian laughs. “Don’t you know I’m not your typical vampire? It’ll take more than party tricks to get into my head. But maybe you ought to get your wife to come play. I hear she’s quite skilled. Maybe she’ll succeed where your daughter has failed.”
Bella screams violently and storms from the room, and Bianca jumps up to meet her out in the hallway. I want to laugh, but I don’t have a death wish. Vision-warp, huh? If I had to guess, that would be making people see things that aren’t really there. My skin chills at that, and I hope that if it doesn’t work on Adrian then it doesn't work on me either. I’ve certainly got enough vampire venom in me.
The others go next. The twins beat him up, and I have to look above them instead of directly at them as they pummel his body over and over. They punch and kick, and the more they do it, the more Adrian seems to grow stronger somehow. He’s laughing hysterically by the end of it, even as blood runs down his face and mixes with his teeth. After what feels like ages, they give it up, and Lainey goes next. I don’t know what she does, but the twins hold Adrian back and she touches his wounds.
I stand, face pressed to the glass as Adrian heals, his cuts stitching themselves back together as if everything is happening in reverse.
“Oh my gosh,” I whisper. Something like this is a dream come true. If I could go back and wish for any gift, this would be it.
“I know, right?” Chloe laughs.
And then Lainey steps away, and the twins begin their beating all over again. I fall back into my seat, staring at my feet. I can’t watch this. Vampires can heal on their own, but what Lainey does is remarkable, and they’re using it so they can beat him over and over. Again. And Again.
And again.
This continues in a cycle for hours. My stomach rolls, and I want to leave and I want to stay all at once. Deciding to take a break, I go for the door, but rough hands drag me back to my seat. I turn to glare at Fredrico. “My power will work on you, so don’t make me use it,” he says dryly.
“What’s your power?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Sedation,” Greyson says wryly. “Could’ve used some of that last night, Uncle. I’m exhausted. How much longer until I can go in there and finish this?”
I turn on the sour-faced boy with the chip on his shoulder. My cousin. “And what’s your thing then, if you’re so confident you can get Adrian to talk?”
He pins me with a hard stare. “How often do you have nightmares?”
The others eye Greyson with frustration. Do they not want him to tell me?
“Never,” I respond instantly, though it’s a lie. I don’t dream that often, but when I do they’re often unsettling, and sometimes they’re nightmares. Worse than nightmares. Terrors. “And anyway, that stuff isn’t real. Even if I have a bad dream, I wake up and it’s gone. Big deal.”
“Oh, but some nightmares are real, Eva. And what I can show you has nothing to do with dreaming. Have you ever wondered what lurks in the unseen dark places? Have you ever seen something that wasn’t really there, only to wonder if perhaps it was?”
I roll my eyes. “Care to be any less cryptic?”
He leans back in his seat with an exasperated sigh. “You really are dense, aren’t you?”
“And I really don’t understand why you hate me. What did I ever do to you? Absolutely nothing. Are you threatened or something?”
Greyson doesn’t respond.
“The kid has the shadow-sight,” Dario says dryly. “It means he can see the other realms. Angels. Demons. Ghosts. All that shit.” He turns on his nephew with a laugh. “And he thinks he’s so damn mysterious now.”
I frown. “That stuff is real?”
Greyson throws up his hands. “Asks the nephilim in the middle of an interrogation with a vampire.”
“Sorry,” I mutter, “these things aren’t widely known.”
“Didn’t your mother ever take you to church?” Dario asks.
“That’s enough, all of you,” Chloe speaks up. “I’m trying to watch. You should too. What if he reveals something? We need to find that Gateway if we’re going to ever complete our mission on Earth.”
“Spoken like a true radical,” Greyson rolls his eyes.
This is all so confusing to me. “What’s the Gateway?”
“Can’t tell you that yet,” he shrugs.
“This is all a bunch of bullshit,” I snap, jumping up from my seat and storming out the door and into the hallway. The others yell after me, but nobody stops me, so whatever. I’d like to see them try anyway. Never mess with an angry woman.
I push open the door to Adrian’s interrogation room and stride inside. Six heads snap in my direction. Lainey’s eyes are filled with relief. She’s standing next to Adrian, healing him for the gazillionth time. The twins glare over all their hulking muscles. Tate raises an eyebrow, and Camilla doesn’t look the least bit surprised to see me. Did they want me to interrupt like this? Well, if they did, then they just got what they wanted.
“Are you okay?” I ask Adrian.
“Leave us,” he growls. “Get out of here, Eva.”
“Uh, no, I don’t think I’ll be doing that.” I’ve been through so much with this man, and I’m not going to let him boss me around anymore. In fact, I’m not going to let anyone.
“If you don’t, they’re going to kill you,” I continue, hoping to surprise them all for real this time.
His eyes narrow. “You don’t know what you’re asking of me.”
“Whatever this Gateway is, it can’t be worth more than your life.”
“They’re going to kill me either way. And it is worth more than my life. It’s worth the lives of millions.”
I step back, more confused than ever. “Will someone please tell me exactly what is going on here?”
Adrian begins to speak but his words are lost the moment that Greyson strides into the room.
CHAPTER 26
ADRIAN
The boy points at Eva, and then she screams like the weight of eternity is crushing her soul. That noise splits me open, making me question everything. The Gateway has been a guarded secret for centuries that many supernaturals have sought to find. It was only recently discovered by Brisa. Not many of us even know about it, and I’ve never traveled there myself, though I know Mangus has been there at least twice. The neph have gone to great lengths to get to it, and Eva’s pain is the only reason I’d break.
But I won’t. I can’t. I can’t be responsible for the genocide that will happen if they find it.
“Torturing an innocent? You will pay for this,” I say to the De Lucas and Leslie Tate. “I will not forget what you’ve done here.”
And what they did to my prodigy before Kelli, as well as Kelli herself because it was one of their hunters who killed her. And now they’re going after Eva? I’ll never let them get away with it.
My voice is barely audible over the agonized screech of Eva’s crying. She’s babbling something about her mother being hurt, about the demons, about the darkness. They’re going to break her. This is what they want. Break her so they can break me.
Camilla stalks in close, her eyes blazing. “Tell us where it is before she loses her mind. The darkness will not be kind to her.”
“She’s weaker than I thought,” Tate adds, frowning down at her writhing form.
“They feed off of pain,” the boy, Greyson, explains like it’s something to be proud of. His eyes are wild with excitement as he watches, as if he’s also feeding too. “And I think they also like her light. It’s new for them.”
They? I don’t know what he has at his command, but whatever it is, it’s dark. Evil. Of all the De Lucas this child is the one to fear most.
I need to think. I need to do something to stop her pain. I’m stronger than this, than them, I’m better, faster, more cunning. I’ve lived a thousand lifetimes, and they have but one. They can’t best me. If only Camilla were inches closer, I’d be able to rip her throat out with my teeth. It would be so quick, so brutal, that even their healer wouldn’t be able to do a thing to stop her death. I eye her aged skin, reminded of tissue paper. It would be so easy . . . And then the others would lose their tempers and kill me. Or kill Eva. Maybe both. But they wouldn’t have the information they wanted, and their matriarch would be gone.
“You kill her, and you do my kind a favor,” I spit. “We know what she is. She killed our queen.”
But they don’t know what Sebestian wants to do with her. If they did, then surely they’d cut her down immediately.
“I think you do care.” Tate strides forward. “I think you care very, very much. If you didn’t, you’d have given up the location already.”
“How do you figure that?”
Eva crawls to her hands and knees now, heaving. Her body is in a fight or flight response. She started in fight mode, but is now caving in on herself, as if trying to chase away shadows. I will her to be strong, to use what she has to defend herself. She has light in her somewhere. Light that might kill me, but if she were to unleash it, it might destroy those shadows. It might stop this. Save her.
But her hands don’t glow. And her body stays rigid. And her cries only get louder.
“You care because you love her,” Tate laughs. “You care because you know what we’re going to do once we find the Gateway. And mind you, we will find it. For a vampire, it’s pretty funny that you’re acting like you don’t want blood on your hands. Such a hypocrite. You’ll always have blood on your hands. And soon you’ll rot hell with blood on your hands.”
“And so will you.”
He rolls his eyes. “You can help us or you can die, but either way we’re going to find the Gateway. Might as well save Eva first.”
I look him square in the eye. “Fine. I choose death.”
He steps back and kicks Eva lightly. She doesn’t seem to process it, or even that any of us are here talking about her. “So you’d choose her death?”
“You can’t put that on me.” I press my arms up where the chains snag against my flesh, burning me further. I don’t care––I press harder, trying to break free. It’s useless. “I’m not the one hurting her, you are!”
“So you do love her,” Tate roars. “And you’re going to let us drive her mad? Kill her right in front of you? You’re more vile than I thought.”
My fangs extend, and I cackle. “You aren’t going to kill your greatest weapon. This is a bluff. A sick and twisted game that I’m not playing.”
I close my mouth and look away, concentrating on the cracks in the walls and shutting my mind away. I’ve had great practice in putting my emotions aside, and this will be no different.
Someone else enters the room then, and whatever Greyson is doing stops because Eva’s cries peter out and turn to muffled sobs. I blink at Fredrico, one of the other De Luca sons, and one of the few whose gift I wasn’t able to learn during my years of keeping tabs on the family. Brisa made sure all the nephilim factions were under constant surveillance and had given the De Lucas to me after my unfortunate run-in with Tate years ago. I’m still not sure if she did that to punish me for failing my prodigy or as a way to stoke my desire for revenge.
“One touch from me, and you’ll be sedated,” Fredrico says, strolling up to me and giving away his play. “And do you know what happens next?”
“You’re not supposed to tell me what you’re going to do before you do it,” I mock. “Where’s the fun in that?”
I’ve never met a sedator before, but they’re dangerous. My fangs pang in protest.
“I’ll sedate you, and then I’ll extract your venom.” His eyes are cold. “Venom isn’t always easy to come by, and yours must be quite strong. We could use it in our war efforts, don’t you think?”
So they know about the venom. I’d suspected it, but couldn’t get confirmation. Well, here it is, and it makes me sick.
“Touch me and die,” I glare at the lanky man. “Go ahead. See if it works. Most of you can’t affect me. Not even ghost-boy over here can hurt me.”
I don’t actually know if Greyson sees ghosts, but it’s a close enough guess. The kid glares, and I swear Eva holds in a laugh. She must be feeling much better. Nobody moves.
“Well, are you going to do it or not? I haven’t got all day. The sun will be setting soon. Better get moving if you think you’re going to extract my venom and then throw me out for the sun to burn.”
“We could always stake you,” Fredrico quips.
“But you won’t. Where’s the fanfare in that when you can watch your enemy go up in flames? Ah, don’t feel bad, I’d do the same thing to you in a heartbeat.”
“You don’t have a heartbeat.”
“Good point.”
Fredrico’s ego gets the best of him, just as I’d hoped. He reaches out to touch me, and I’m wagering on one thing: that his power won’t be stronger than I am. Because I’m fast, I’m old, and I’ve been through enough close-encounters over the centuries to know how to survive.
