Blood Revolution (God Wars, #3) (31 page)

"Yes. You have all of Gavril's memories now, as well as your own. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes. Some of them I dislike greatly, however."

"I understand that. This is your chance to make him a better man," Conner said. "Treat his mother with respect. She's losing her child," Conner whispered.

Tybus watched as the woman who'd birthed Gavril walked into the room, supported by another, dark-haired woman. Lissa's eyes turned to him and she sobbed.

"Lissa, it'll be all right," the other woman soothed. "He's still here. Really. All of him is inside Tybus. I saw it. I read him."

"But," Lissa wept.

"I know," the dark-haired one said. "Someone said once that what we lose, we will find again. I hope that means something to you, someday."

"Lissa, it is time to say good-bye to the body on the bed," a Larentii spoke.

"Yes. Oh, God, where is Gavin?"

"I am here, cara." A vampire rushed inside. Glancing briefly at Tybus, Gavin went to Lissa's side.

"We will release the stasis when you say," the Larentii said.

Tybus watched as Lissa and Gavin knelt beside the bed and put their hands on their son.

* * *

Breanne's Journal

It didn't matter at that moment how Teeg had treated me. Lissa and Gavin had loved him, and now they had to let him go. Lissa wept openly, her face pressed against the covers. Gavin, his face rigid with pain, stared at his son. I felt numb.

"Do it again," Conner whispered next to me. "Send
Love
to both of them. They need it." I nodded and steeled myself before sending
Love
to my sire for the first time, and to my sister for the second.

Gavin dropped his head in his hands and wept at that moment. People react differently, I suppose, and I had no idea when Gavin had last released his sorrow by weeping. Lissa, tears still streaming down her face, lifted her gaze to Gavril's face.

"I love you so much, honey," she sobbed. "I remember when Karzac handed you to me when you were born. You were so tiny, and we were so proud."

"My child," Gavin sobbed and gripped Gavril's hand in his. I wept for him at that moment. For the time he'd missed with his son because of Kifirin's interference. For the hard man that Gavril had become, because of other interference. He'd been star-crossed, almost from the beginning, and his parents grieved for him now.

"Breanne?" Corent touched my hand.

"Corent?" I turned to him, only then realizing I was crying.

"Don't be afraid to weep," he said. I sobbed against his chest.

* * *

Tybus' Journal

I was led away by one of the Larentii—Gavril knew him as Renegar. "Come," he'd said, and pulled me gently from the room. I was given a bottle of something a servant called blood substitute. I drank it all and asked for another. It was provided quickly.

Then I was led to a bedchamber, and shown to a bath. "Clothes will be waiting when you come out," Renegar explained. I washed myself—several times—after I was left alone. I pondered, too, what my role might be in the future. If the dark-haired woman—her name was Breanne, I'd learned—hadn't done what she had for me, I might have been a fragmented wreck. As it was, I now felt something I hadn't felt in a very long time—
hope
.

* * *

Reah's Journal

I wasn't sure what to do. What to feel, even. Teeg had continued to pull farther away from me, and I'd allowed it. I hadn't gone looking for a reason, and now I learned that there was one. Oh, he'd been different, but that was to be expected. What none of us had realized was that he'd slowly been disappearing before our eyes, his soul sucked away by a prisoner from the past.

"Reah, you are not expected to," Aurelius began.

"We will talk with him. We will work this out," I said. "Even if we disagree, I won't dissolve the marriage. At least not right away. Auri, what are we going to tell Garwin Wyatt?"

"Let us wait on that," Aurelius pulled me against him. "Let us see how things proceed. Lissa, too, must be consulted. After all, this one will be forced to step into Gavril's shoes and run an Alliance. Any indication that things have changed may destroy a delicate balance."

"I know," I whispered. "Auri, what are we going to do? All those people saw Teeg get stabbed in a casino. The guards killed the assassin, but they know it happened. It's all over the news."

"Then there will be a recovery," Aurelius sounded determined. I nodded and huddled against him.

* * *

Breanne's Journal

"Breanne, I see nothing," Corent announced. I'd explained what happened whenever someone touched my tears, but they didn't appear to affect Corent at all. I blinked at him in surprise. He'd stared at everybody inside Lissa's kitchen, and couldn't read them.

"Let me read you again, then, and see if I can figure this out," I said, lowering my shield. Drawing in a breath, I stared. I couldn't read Corent, now. Yes, I could read everybody else in the kitchen so I quickly slammed the shield up again, but I was still confused.

"What happened?" Corent leaned in to kiss me gently.

"Honey, I can't read you now," I whispered.

"That's not a bad thing," Corent replied softly. "Is it?"

"I sure hope not," I said. Corent's hair turned a serene, royal blue as he kissed me again.

* * *

Lissa's Journal

Renegar released the particles of my son's body. I grieved over that as well, but there wasn't anything else we could do. Tybus would have to take his place, or the Campiaan Alliance would crumble. I just hoped a damaged former architect had enough strength to do what needed to be done.

Dee had to be contacted, too, as well as thousands of news outlets, thirsty for a story. The Campiaan Alliance was holding its breath, and we needed to present a living, breathing replica of my son to them or things would go bad in a hurry.

Gavin had disappeared once Gavril's body was gone, and I had no idea where he was. It didn't matter—I had to dry my tears and keep my back straight to get through the next few hours.

"Rigo?" I said. He, Drake and Drew had been beside me ever since I'd left the bedroom.

"Tiessa?"

"We need to get to Campiaa. Go get Tybus, and tell him everything he needs to know for a short news conference. We'll put him in a hospital bed in Campiaa City, and he can do it from there. At least it's night in Campiaa City. After the conference, I'll give Tybus blood and let him sleep it off."

"I will do this for you," Rigo nodded. If anybody knew etiquette and protocol, Rigo did. If Tybus had any kind of memory, Rigo would see this done right.

"We'll do transport," Drake offered.

"Thanks, honey," I said.

* * *

Breanne's Journal

Corent stayed with me, and we watched the newsfeed as Tybus, looking like someone who'd been through an ordeal (although not the one everybody thought) gave a short interview from a hospital bed in Campiaa City.

"I just wanted to take a walk," Tybus said, smiling slightly. "It was interrupted."

The journalist laughed before asking how long he might be away from his office.

"Not long," Tybus claimed. "The physicians tell me the wound wasn't deep, so I may be up and around in an eight-day. I can work from my bed, too, so that's not a concern. The appointments are the only things that will have to be rescheduled."

"Well, that's my cue," I rose and stretched.

"Are you going?" Corent rose with me, looking as if he were prepared to beg me to stay.

"I have to. Some things might turn out badly if I don't." I didn't add that if Hank, Bill, Jayson and Gavin found out I'd been missing, there would be hell to pay. Something was making my skin crawl, too, and I hadn't figured that out, yet.

"Breanne, you should go back six hours after you left." Wisdom appeared in front of me. "I realize you did what needed to be done here, but things haven't gone well in your absence," he added. "You can't change any of it, so don't try."

I stared at him in shock—I know I did. "What?" I began.

"Go back, like I said. The news will be waiting. I hope they are not too harsh with you."

"Harsh?" I was shaking, now.

"Breanne," Wisdom shook his head. "You know you cannot tell them where you have been or what you have done."

"You know, you may be smart and all," I gave him my best Texas accent, "But so far, your ass has been kind of useless." I bent time to get away from him.

* * *

"Breanne can fix Kay. I'm convinced of it, now," Ashe settled on a barstool next to Trajan.

"You saw Breanne?" Trajan growled.

"Yeah. We, ah, did something that needed to be done. She fixed what I thought would be unfixable. We have to get her here, Traje. For Kay."

"I don't count?" Trajan tapped his chest and stood, his body stiff with anger.

"I didn't say that," Ashe sighed. "We'll get her here for you and for Kay."

* * *

Breanne's Journal

I did as Wisdom dictated, and got back six hours after I left. I knew it when I landed. Kathleen was shut up in her room, Bill was handling the case and the rest of them were grieving and pissed at the same time. Trina was dead, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

Chapter 15
 

Breanne's Journal

Did I feel guilty? Yeah. Not only did I feel guilty, I
was
guilty. If I'd been here instead of haring after Tybus, then Trina might still be alive. I couldn't bring her back now—the memory of what had happened the last time I
Changed What Was
still burned in my brain. Wisdom had known it too—somehow.

Nobody was speaking to me, that was certain. Night would fall in two hours, and I was waiting for the sire to wake and the surrogate sire to arrive so Hank and Jayson could tell them what a bad girl I'd been. And Trina was still dead.

"Where were you?" Opal settled beside me as I sat morosely on a deck chair, staring at the water behind the house.

"Opal, I can't explain that right now. All I can say is that I needed to be where I was. I needed to be here, too, but I can't be in two places at once."

"I sure hope the other thing was important."

How could I tell her that I'd had to sacrifice one life for millions of others? The Campiaan Alliance wouldn't survive without Teeg—or at least the image of Teeg—at the helm. Trina had been an innocent victim of violence, and I intended to find out why that was. I knew Bill wanted to take Gavin with him after nightfall to question the remaining prisoner. Well, I was going now. "Want to go with me while I question that asshole?" I asked.

"Yeah." Opal pulled a gun from the waistband of her jeans and checked the clip. "I'm ready."

"Good. Be ready for them to not speak to you, too, when we get back."

"I got this," Opal shoved the gun into the back of her waistband.

"You know, that gun might become an option," I said and folded Opal away.

* * *

"Hello, asshole," I said the moment we landed in Jeremy Brill's cell. I read him, too. It's a good thing I did—prescience kicked in and I turned Opal to mist as another chimera appeared, burning Jeremy to a crisp before devouring the body in three gulps.

* * *

"Bill, we didn't stick around after the chimera disappeared again," Opal said. "It happened so fast, and Bree was afraid I'd die. Otherwise, I think she would have taken that thing on." I watched as Bill and Opal had a staring and growling contest. Bill was pissed (even more than he was earlier) because we hadn't taken him with us.

Hank, Jayson, Winkler, Weldon and Trajan were happy enough just being pissed and settled for glaring at me from time to time while they listened. Did they think I didn't feel bad enough as it was?

"They were looking for you, Bill," I said. Bill jerked his head around at my admission. "I read Jeremy Brill before he was cooked and served for dinner," I added.

"Jeremy Brill. Werewolf rogue," Weldon growled low.

"Working for Obediah Tanner," I said. Well, somebody didn't want that cat out of the bag—that was easy enough to see. Too bad the chimera got there after I did. "They wanted Winkler, too, because they were offered a bonus for him," I said. "But the other one, James Brill, Jeremy's brother, saw Jimmy and started shooting. Trina was in the way."

"We couldn't get Jimmy to talk after he came home," Winkler sighed. "James Brill always had it in for Jimmy."

"So he had a feud with your cook and decided to end it in a grocery store," Bill tossed up a hand. "Instead, Trina dies and the second shooter gets cooked. I already heard from the sheriff—he says the cameras didn't record anything and they don't know how Jeremy escaped."

"What's worse is we have another chimera to deal with," Weldon pointed out.

"I didn't know they could fold space," I said.