Chapter Thirty-Eight
E
ntering the holding room, Jask and Corbin took their seats at the heads of the table, Kane taking his to Jask’s left.
Jask guided Phia to sit adjacent to him on the opposite side of the table to Kane. That way, if Kane went for her, he’d have the table to contend with first, let alone two lycans, before he even got that far.
But everything about the way Kane leaned back in his chair, one bent arm resting loosely on the broad back, his legs casually parted, told him this was not a time for a face-off. Not yet.
And for once, despite the deadly look in Kane’s eyes as he meticulously assessed Phia, she’d thankfully opted for the sensible choice of silence.
But he couldn’t be sure how long it would last – not just because Phia was Phia, but because he’d seen twice now the effect the proximity of vampires had on her.
She
knew playing ball was the best option, but whether the serryn in her agreed was a whole other matter. And more the reason why Jask needed to conclude this as quickly as he could.
‘So this is an interesting, if not very unexpected, scenario,’ Kane said. ‘Where did you find her, Jask?’
‘I stumbled on her by accident.’
‘By accident?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Where?’
‘I’m going along with this for now, Kane – that doesn’t mean I’m fucking accountable to you.’
Kane’s jaw tensed, he lifted his eyebrows a fraction before he leaned forward on the table, turned his head to look him in the eyes – a move that made even Jask’s stomach churn. ‘You’ve got a serryn in your compound. You’d better fucking believe I want answers.’
Jask wasn’t stupid enough to push him, but his days of compromise were over. He just had to hope that somehow there was a way forward, or blood was going to spill before dawn ignited. And if it was Kane’s, they’d not only have an invisible army closing in, but a hundred times as many vampires that dominated the district.
Still, there was no way anyone, not even Kane Malloy, was taking Sophia from him.
‘
My
compound,’ Jask reminded him. ‘
My
territory.
My
business. She has nothing to do with you or anyone else.’
‘No? When they find out you’ve got her, she soon will have.’
The tepid light from the window caught Kane’s face, igniting his navy eyes. It had not been a day unlike that when Jask had first tracked him down and told him what the lycans had confessed to. He’d resented going to Kane, with every iota of his being, but he’d known it had been the only way to save lives – many lives, not least those of his pack.
This was another of those days.
Jask’s skin prickled. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘What’s she doing here, Jask? And who was the assassin she protected?’
‘You first.’
Kane held his gaze to the point Jask half expected him to lunge across the table, pin him to the floor and demand the answers he wanted.
But he didn’t. Instead, Kane folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. ‘Sirius Throme.’
It was two simple words. One simple name. But it said more than either of them needed to share explanation on.
It was Jask’s turn to lean onto the table, his fists clenched as he locked gazes with Kane. ‘You’re telling me the Global Council did this to my pack?’
‘We’ve got a problem, Jask. A huge fucking problem.’
‘This is because of the court case, isn’t it? This is their punishment. For stopping their evoked massacre in Blackthorn –
this
is their punishment.’
‘Fuckers!’ Corbin hissed, standing abruptly, kicking his chair halfway across the room.
Phia jumped.
Jask had already sensed it coming.
Kane didn’t even flinch.
‘It’s not punishment – it’s the start of a war,’ Kane declared. ‘And you’re their example of what’s to come, Jask. According to Sirius, an easily justifiable example considering you’re the reason they never got their hands on me in the first place.’
His heart skipped a beat. They were the words he had always dreaded. That every resident in Blackthorn dreaded. It was a day they had all known would come. ‘They’re closing in on us?’
Kane nodded.
‘Why now?’
‘Because they’re ready for me.’
Jask stared at him, then fell back into his chair with a curt exhale. He shook his head before glaring back at Kane. ‘So this
is
all about you? This
is
down to you?’
‘That’s what they want everyone to believe.’
‘Well that’s how it fucking sounds to me.’
‘This war was happening one way or another. What happened here today is just the start. Next will come the call for me. If they get what they want, if they get me to surrender, they have the perfect reason to destroy the place. If others surrender me, the same still applies. Or they’ll come in and destroy Blackthorn until they find me.’
‘They’ll start a global uprising. They can’t do that.’
‘If there’s an uprising, they’ll destroy sister districts too. This is going to be zero tolerance, Jask – and Sirius is holding the reins.’
‘Why does he want you?’
‘The same reason the Higher Order want me – they want what I know. In the case of the Higher Order, it’s how to make the healing permanent so they don’t lose their purpose. Sirius, however, is one step ahead it seems. He wants to build an infallible Global Council. He wants soul transference. And I’m the missing link.’
‘Soul transference? Like what you did with Caitlin?’
‘Only on a much bigger scale,’ Kane added. ‘And now he’s calling the shots to get it. At least he thinks he is. It depends what we do from here.’
‘Hold on a second,’ Jask said. ‘There is no
we
.’
Kane frowned. ‘Did you not hear what I said? There is no get-out clause here, Jask. They’re not just coming for me; they’re coming for us all and they want this district to implode in the process. Everyone within these walls is expendable, whatever the outcome. They get what they want, and there is no more Blackthorn, no more Lowtown, no more third species. This is what these walls are all about – containing us for this very event. One way or another, whether justifying it through this or the rising of the chosen one, they were never giving us a way out.’
‘Burning down our greenhouse,’ Jask said. ‘They
want
us to morph, don’t they? That’s how they’re going to justify coming in here if you don’t play ball.’
‘The same as I’m guessing they’ve hidden your young here in Blackthorn, waiting for you to rip the place apart trying to find them. They’re toying with you. They’re toying with us all.’
‘Do you know where they put them?’ Corbin asked, stepping back towards the table from his position by the window.
‘No,’ Kane said, glancing at him. He looked back at Jask. ‘But we’ll find them.’
‘I keep telling you, there is no
we
,’ Jask reminded him. ‘We’ll find them our way. We don’t need you, Kane.’
‘Jask, there is only one way this is going to work. We either pull together or they win. We made a pact, remember, should this day ever come.’
A pact that said the third species would never turn on each other. A pact that Jask had agonised over since the trial, since Kane’s betrayal. And no more so than since Phia had landed in his lap – a potential of vengeance once he’d done what he needed to.
Until he’d fallen for her.
‘As if I’d ever trust you again,’ Jask said.
‘You need to,’ Kane said. ‘With what the Higher Order, more specifically Feinith, let slip to Carter – our beloved ex-head of the TSCD.’ Kane glanced at Phia then back at Jask. ‘The truth about the vampire prophecies.’
Phia frowned. ‘Why did you look at me when you said that?’
His navy eyes narrowed slightly as he looked back at her. ‘Why do you think?’
Phia scowled back, staring Kane down despite the intensity of his mutual glare. ‘I wouldn’t be asking if I knew.’
Kane frowned. ‘Keep a rein on that temper, serryn.’
She exhaled tersely. ‘You don’t tell me what to do.’
Jask knew that look in her eyes only too well. It was one of the triggers – conflict. The second her blood started pumping and the adrenaline started to flow, once she started to relax into her own sense of power, the serryn would begin to out.
As she stared the master vampire down, there was something else he noticed – her pupils were constricting, not dilating, despite the circumstances.
And, more to the point, Kane had noticed too.
Jask knew that look in the vampire’s eyes, that expression. The same expression that brought a casual, relaxed smile before he thrust his fist up under someone’s ribcage and tore out their throat.
Jask reached out and grasped Phia’s wrist, a reminder that he was there because, for that moment, she seemed to be losing sight of everything but Kane. ‘What does any of this have to do with Phia, Kane?’
‘Why don’t you tell him?’ Kane said, his glare still troublingly locked on Phia.
‘I would if I knew but I don’t.’
‘Like fuck you don’t,’ Kane hissed.
But Jask knew confusion and shock when he saw it in her eyes. And he believed it.
‘Whatever you think she knows, she doesn’t,’ Jask said. ‘She’s been a serryn less than two days. I found her the same night the line jumped to her.’
Kane’s attention snapped back to Jask. ‘Jumped?’
‘From her sister,’ Jask added. ‘I found her in the ruins of an old building over on the east side.’
He raised his eyebrows slightly. ‘My territory?’
‘I needed her, Kane. This isn’t the only trouble my pack is in. The latest remedy didn’t work. You know as well as I do that the blue moon is pending. I needed turmeric. Using Phia was the only way I could get it.’
‘And did you get it?’
He nodded. ‘Not that it makes any difference now. Not now they’ve ruined the rest of the supplies. We’ll never get what we need in time. Now tell me what any of this has to do with her?’
‘And the assassin?’
‘Kane…’ Jask warned.
‘Tell me how you let an assassin through here, what he has to do with her,’ he said, cocking his head towards Phia, ‘and I’ll tell you what you need to know.’
‘I was part of The Alliance,’ Phia cut in. ‘The same as Dan out there. We were killing off key players in the third-species underworld. Until we got ambushed. We’re all that’s left.’
‘I was using him for leverage,’ Jask explained. ‘Until things went wrong.’
‘Just tell me why you looked at me when you mentioned the prophecies,’ Phia demanded.
Kane waited a few seconds, to the point Jask was sure Phia was going to explode, but then he spoke. ‘The chosen one, a Higher Order vampire, remains as such until the transformation is complete. For the transformation to be complete, they need to drink a serryn to death. They take her to the Brink, steal her soul and return the Tryan. And the prophecies begin.’
Jask snapped his attention to Phia, but her silence, let alone the look in her eyes, told him the shock was even greater to her. ‘You didn’t know this?’
Phia shook her head, her eyes wide. ‘No,’ she said, staring back at Kane.
‘And as she’s already here,’ Kane continued. ‘It seems we’ve now got double the problem to deal with. The serryn emerges within days of the chosen one being selected. Both were destined to appear here in Blackthorn.’
Jask frowned. ‘The prophecies have started?’
‘Seems that way.’
‘Is this why you chose Blackthorn?’ Jask asked. ‘Is this why you’re here?’
Kane’s silence said it all.
‘But you said it’s a problem. Why would that be a problem to you?’ Jask’s heart pounded, an uncomfortable darkness leaking into the room. ‘This chosen one – tell me it’s not you.’
Kane exhaled tersely. ‘Oh, it’s most definitely not me.’
‘Then do you know who?’
‘I wish I did. Let me be more specific – I’m here to make sure the prophecies never happen.’
The room closed in, darkness masking the edges. Everything within him went numb. Nothing would have prepared him for the gut-wrenching sickness that curdled the pit of his stomach, the very pit of his being. ‘Why?’
‘This isn’t going to be a peaceful political move, Jask. Not like the rumour the Higher Order have spread for their own ends. It was never going to be that way. We’re talking about a full-blown uprising. We’re talking about an apocalypse.’ He glanced back at Sophia. ‘And your new girlfriend is the key to it happening.’
Chapter Thirty-Nine
K
ane clearly wanted to kill her.
Not only did she have Caleb Dehain on her back but Kane Malloy now too. And Jask was the only one standing between them.
Jask who, because of her, was now caught in the middle.
Exhaustion, anxiety, stress – she didn’t know which one was winning out, but the room became hazy. Sophia shoved back her chair, needing to get out of there. ‘I need air,’ she said, turning towards the door.
She stumbled outside of the room, pushed open the main door and gasped in the courtyard air before falling back against the wall, sliding down against it before clutching her lowered head in her hands.
This was what Leila had been talking about. This had to be what Leila meant when she said it was complicated. There was nothing Leila didn’t know about prophecies. And for some reason she’d warned her to stay away from Caleb. She’d warned her of the implications should he find her.
Caleb had to know – somehow he had to know about the role of the serryn in the prophecies.
But he’d let Leila go. He’d
let
her go.
It didn’t make any sense.
She knew his footsteps, and she knew the touch that caressed her forearm.
‘Hey,’ Jask said.
She eventually looked up at him. ‘Do you think he’s telling the truth? About everything?’
‘Kane’s many things, Sophia – but he’s not a liar.’
‘Not just one war, but
two
? Jask…’
‘I know,’ he said, lacing his fingers in hers, gripping her hand. ‘Fucked if we do, fucked if we don’t.’
‘How does he know so much?’
‘It’s the way it’s always been with the masters – in-built as much as read.’
‘But the stuff he was talking about – the Global Council, the soul transferring… Jask, what’s going on?’
‘I’m going to find out.’
‘He wants me dead, doesn’t he? One less problem.’
‘He needs me, Sophie. We need each other. And having seen the way I feel about you, he’s not going to do anything to jeopardise that for now.’
‘It sounded to me like he’s talking about pulling an army together, about not waiting for them to strike first. Jask, you know the implications of this.’ All she could hear was her own pulse in her ears, her surroundings shrinking and expanding as her curt breaths starved her brain of oxygen. ‘This is it, isn’t it? This is all over. One way or another, this is going to happen.’
He tightened his fingers within hers. ‘Where’s that warrior, huh?’ he asked, with a faint smile. ‘Where’s that assassin spirit?’
‘It’s not quite as easy when you care.’
He cupped her face, the surprise clear in those beautiful azure eyes. ‘No,’ he said. ‘But it’s what makes you fight harder. And we
are
going to fight this.’
She squeezed his hand back, lowered her voice. ‘How do you know you can trust him? I heard what you said about what happened with the TSCD. If he did you over, then…’
‘I need to hear him out.’
And she needed to finish hearing Leila out. Before she said anything more, before she did anything, she needed the rest of the story from her sister.
She looked past Jask’s shoulder, only then seeing Daniel strapped to the railings across the courtyard.
He was conscious. More than that, he was looking right at them.
Jask followed her gaze.
‘There’s someone I need to hear out, too,’ she said.
Jask helped her up. ‘You sure you want to do that?’
‘I want to kick his arse for what he tried to do to you, Jask, but I think that would make me something of a hypocrite, don’t you?’
As she gently eased her arm away, he let her.
Daniel watched her the whole time she approached, his head resting back against the railings.
She looked back across her shoulder a few moments later to see Corbin had replaced Jask in the doorway – clearly Jask not wanting to leave her unguarded.
‘Very cosy,’ Daniel remarked, as soon as she was in earshot. ‘And there was me coming to rescue you.’
‘Which was just as much about killing Jask, right?’
‘He
was
our next job, Phia.’
Her stomach flipped. She glanced anxiously over her shoulder at Corbin, hoping she was out of earshot. She lowered to her haunches. Lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘The Alliance were going after Jask next?’
‘What, you didn’t work that out? Abby had put me in charge of it. The operation was starting after we lay low for a couple of days. Until everything kicked off.’
‘And you just had to see it through.’
‘Some of us don’t go soft over pretty blue eyes, Phia.’
‘I saved your life in there. Those pretty blue eyes were ready to smash your skull in for what you did to Connor.’
‘Connor? Who the fuck is Connor? First-name terms now is it, Phia?’
‘That’s the difference, Dan – I’ve learned they have names.’
‘Oh, how poetic,’ he said with a sneer.
‘The Alliance is finished, Dan, so what cause are you fighting now?’
‘The right one. The one you
were
a part of. Just tell me you’re playing him. Tell me I didn’t see what I just saw then.’
‘I joined The Alliance for one reason – to make a change, to break the web of corruption in this district.’
He exhaled tersely. ‘And the rest,’ he snapped. ‘You were as much on a tirade of vengeance as the rest of us. We’ve all lost someone to this fucked-up system, Phia. This was as much about
you
as the corruption, so don’t play the martyr.’
‘You don’t become a martyr until you’re dead, Dan. And I’ve got a lot I want to do before then.’
‘With him? With one of those third species
responsible
for the corruption.’
‘It’s not like that. There’s more going on. Much more. This isn’t about them and us anymore – humans and third species. This is about right and wrong.’
‘And how do you know the difference? What makes you so arrogant as to
believe
you know the difference?’
‘I know Jask. And I know this pack. And I know we were wrong about them. And that means I know we’ve been wrong about a lot of things. That’s not arrogance – that’s about open eyes.’
‘So you’re teaming up with one of them? Teaming up with one of the third-species leaders. One of the very leaders who tore our Alliance apart in the first place? Maybe we should have left Jarin in charge of us – he clearly does a better job at assassinating his own than we do.’
Her stomach flipped. ‘What did you say?’
His eyes widened, then he glowered down at the floor.
She tilted her head to the side to try and recapture his attention, her knuckles cold against the hard floor. ‘Who the fuck is Jarin, Dan? Is he the one who paid us to go after the Dehains?’
He met her gaze again. ‘I never said that.’
‘You don’t have to. You said “his own” – he’s a vampire? Why are you protecting him?’
‘I’m not.’
‘Then what the hell do you call this?’ she demanded in a curt whisper. ‘You’ve known all along, haven’t you? You lied to me.’
‘It would make no difference even if I did tell you. He’s untouchable, Phia.’
‘You let me head out on a rampage, Dan. Why not stop me?’
‘I tried. And then I was going to tell you after you’d called your sisters. But we got ambushed.’
‘You had plenty of time after that. When Jask and Corbin were in the kitchen – you could have said–’
‘Because I didn’t know you wouldn’t tell him: Jask. Like I said before, I saw the way you were looking at each other. And I know how you go off on one. How you splutter things out when you’re angry. If you told Jask and Jask told Caleb, then Caleb would go for Jarin and Jarin would know it was us who had disclosed the very truth he’s killing us to cover up. Taking on the third species undercover is one thing; having the Higher Order baying for your blood is another.’
She stared at him. ‘Jarin is a
Higher Order
vampire? That’s why you’re scared.’
‘I’m fucking petrified.’
‘But why did he go after Caleb? Why are the Higher Order turning on their own?’
‘I don’t know. Abby let it slip to me in her panic the night after you disappeared, when it all started. For fuck’s sake, Phia, just untie me, will you?’
She glanced back across at Corbin in the distance.
‘Phia!’ Dan said more curtly.
She snapped her attention back to him, back to his wide blue eyes.
‘They’re going to kill me if you don’t let me go,’ he said.
‘Jask won’t do that.’
Daniel exhaled tersely. ‘I tried to kill him.’
‘I’ll talk to him.’
‘Are you going to talk to Kane, too? For fuck’s sake, Phia,’ he snapped, his wrists straining against the leather bindings. ‘I was there for you. You got into The Alliance because of
me
. I gave you purpose and I gave you means. And I’ve saved your life more than once. I’ve known you almost a year. You’ve known him less than two days.’
And in two days her world was turning upside down in ways she couldn’t ever have imagined.
Because if the Higher Order were involved and they worked out, just as she had, that only a serryn could have saved Jake, then, if what Kane had just told her was right, they too could already have worked out the key to the prophecies was in their midst.
And if they questioned Caleb, they could find out about Leila.
She could barely breathe, barely think.
She turned on her heels and ran.