Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (28 page)

When she tilts
her head, like she’s
trying to understand me, I mutter
under my breath, “Never mind.
” Rising from the plush sofa, I ask
, “Do you know where Reed is?”

She growls low and instantly Reed appears
next to me. Not taking her
intense
eyes off me, she says
, “Reed.”

“Uh…tha
nks, Anya,” I say
, seeing the confused look on Reed’s face. “
Hi,” I smile
at
him,
walking into the curve in his side and feeling his arms instantly hu
g me. “What did I miss?” I ask
, cognizant that I still need that toothbrush.

“
The news conference, M
rs. de Graham,” Reed says
with an ironic expression on his face.

My eyebrow lifts in question. “Huh?”

“Yeah, what’s that
supposed to mean?” Russell asks
, sitting up
and rubbing a hand over his face
.

“Brennus—
he’s in Poland
,” Reed replies
.

“
How do you
know that?
What’s the v
ampire doin’?” Russell
asks as he rises from the couch looking rumpled from sleep
.

“He’s looking for us
,” Reed informs
, motioning
toward the flat-screens mounted
around the bar. Switching
all
of
them on
with a push of a button
, he uses
the remote to turn up the volume. “He’s employing the haystack to find the needle.”

On every
screen
in the bar
, a doctored photograph of me in a wedding dress standing next to
Brennus appears
along with a
local
phone number. “
How very human of him
,
” I choke
, feeling scared. “
What are they saying?” I
ask with
goose bumps rising
on my
fore
arms.

Reed rubs my arms soothingly and says
,
“They’
re saying that you’
re Brennus’ wife—
kidnapped from your home in Ireland. They’re asking that if anyone has information on your location that they call the number on the screen
…for a substantial reward
.”

A photogr
aph of Reed at Crestwood flashes
on the screen next. “Wh
at are they saying now?” I ask with
my heart in my throat.

Russell answers
,
“They’re describin’ Reed as a stalker who has been harassin’ you. They’re sayin’ he’s a person o
f interest in this case and
offerin’ a reward for any information on his location, too
.
Ahh! You’
ve
gotta be kiddin’
me…” Russell trails
off, listening to the newscaster as
his football picture encompasses
the news item box at the left of the screen
.

“What do we do?” I as
k
. “We can’t leave
here without someone seeing us.
” The wedding photo of me pops
back up on the screen and I make
a derisiv
e sound, gesturing to it
. “Please! Like I’d even be caught undead
in that wedding dress!
”

Russell, smirks
, “Just when you
think that maybe Brennus is runnin’ out of crazy, he show
s up with a brand new can of it…economy size.
”

“
So now every human will be loo
king for us, too,” I say
wit
h a s
inking feeling in my stomach
. “H
ow are we going to
avoid being seen?”

“We’re not, love,” Reed answers in a gentle tone
. “We need help.
I contacted Dominion—”

“Dominion! We can’t do that!
What about Russell?” I interrupt
, feeling panic threading through me.

“Russell has an
aspire
—
a T
hrone
that out
ranks even the highest level
Power
. Anya can take care of Russell so that
they don’
t take him as thei
r weapon,” Reed replies candidly
.

“Oh,” I murmur
, read
ing
Russell’s confused expression. “You
already contacted them?” I ask
for clarity.

“Yes,
” Reed says
with his eyes shifting
away from me.

My eyebrow lifts. “What?” M
y voice is suspicious
, seeing his guilty expression. “
Did you
talk to Preben?”

“No,”
Reed replies
, watching our pictures on the screen.

I
frown. “The war council?” I try again
.

“No,” Reed shakes his head as he avoids
lo
oking at me, and when I gasp, he cringes
a little.

“Y
OU SPOKE TO MY FATHER!” I yell at him while a blush stains my cheeks and my body becomes
rigid.

Reed turns and looks in my eyes.
“Tau is a mast
er at strategy and tactics. He’
s bringing an army to ensure that nothing happens to you. He may be able to catch Brennus here before he has a
chance to hide again,” he explains.

“You didn’t even ask me what I
thought about that plan,” I say
softly
, feeling a stab of pain
.

“You were asleep,” Reed replies
in a low tone.

“You mean you waited
until I was asleep,” I accuse.

H
is eyes narrow. “It was necessary to ca
ll for an extraction,” Reed says
in a military ton
e. “I couldn’t call Zephyr. T
here are now hundreds of Fallen crawling around this city. The Inik
wi are everywhere as well and
…” he hesitates.

“And,” I ask with a lift of my eyebrow.

With reluctance, he adds, “And,
I spotted Werree just a few hours ago.”

A shiver of dread goes
through me at the thought of the
Werree being nearby. “
Brennus is allo
wing the Werree to hunt for me? E
ven aft
er they killed Lachlan?” I ask, feeling numb from shock
.

“
Casimir is no longer pulling strings
with the Werree
,
so
they have naturally shift
ed
back to their old allianc
e with the Gancanagh,” Reed say
s
, like it’s to be expected
—a foregone conclusion
. But,
Reed
wasn’t in the hall
when the Werree attacked us. H
e didn’t witness
them kill Lachlan
while
Lachlan tried
to defend
me. I can still see the Werree
s
’
shadowy figures beetling over the walls and ceilings, trying to get to me so they could take pieces of my body for their flesh suits.

My throat constricts.
“How
can Declan and Faolan go along
with
that?” I ask in a shallow voice
, remembering my Gancanag
h bodyguards who fought with me. “What is wrong with ev
eryone?” My
eyes fil
l up with tears. “I don’t understand
! How can they
just
let those THINGS
hunt ME! HOW CAN THEY DO THAT?” B
etrayal stab
s
me like never before.
“
I saved them from the Werree and now they’re going to le
t the Werree kill me?”

Reed frowns. “Evil is—”

I hold up my hand to him.
“
NO!
I know you don’t understand this, b
ut they were my FRIENDS!” I explain
, feeling myself truly beginning to freak out as tears stream down my face. “DECLAN AND FAOLAN WERE MY FRIENDS!”

“Just like Eion
was your friend
?” Reed asks in a quiet tone
. “But I just burned his body
a few hours ago because he fed on you like you were a snack.”

I wave my hand. “That was Eion. H
e a
lways lacked control,” I reply
dismissively, wiping my tears on my arm.

“No, that is their hallmark
, Evie
. They’
ll consume you until there is nothing left of you and then
they’ll destroy you,” he replies
. “I know you need
time to figure all of this out
—
”

“There’s no time
to figure it out
, Reed. Th
ere’s never any time,” I whisper
,
before
walking away in the direction
of
the bathroom.

Reed calls to me,
“
He saw his entire future with you.
When you le
ft Brennus, Evie, he…” Reed’s voice is rough
,
and I pause
, listening
. “He was left with just his life as it was before you came into it and he…he realized that there is no life without y
ou—
nothing matters. You stole his life from him and it slowly began to take him apart. Everything
else
is the same
,
but it takes on
such…drabness…you have no idea.” Reed gives
a humorless laugh. “He can still taste you on his lips, smell your scent in his memory,
remember when you smiled just for him,
and the thought of never having that again is…harrowin
g. So, he’s willing to hurt you
because he’
s focusing on the pain to try to kill everything that you were to him…so that he can survive it.”

A tear runs a path down my cheek. An instant later, Reed’s arms wrap around me and pull me to his chest.
“I’m
s
o sorry I did that to you
,
”
I croak.

“Shh,” he
hushes
me. “All that went away
when you came back to me
.
”

“I never—”

“I
know,” Reed replies
, rubbing my back.
“And sometime soon, when this is all over, we’re going
to have all the time we need. I promise you that we will.”

“M
y father is coming here,” I say
in a small voice. “What am I goi
ng to say to him?”

“Well,
I never
had a father so…I,” he stammers
.

Russell says,
“You
won’t need to say anythin’
.
He
’ll
like you
no matter what.”

“How do you know?” I ask
, sniffling
. “We’re kind of freak
s
,
remember?”

“Yeah, but you’
r
e
his freak
. H
is little baby strange,
” Russell
says
, grinning
.

Frowning, Reed says
,
“
Tau is also an a
ngel, Evie. He might n
ot
be like you expect him to be.”

My brow furls. “What do you mean?” I ask
.

“He’s not human, so don’t expect hi
m to behave like one,” Reed says
.
“He’s never had a model either—
he’s never had a father in the sense that you’re accustomed to with you
r
Uncle Jim.”

“Oh,” I murmur
. “So you’re saying he may not like me.”

“No, I’m saying y
ou may not like him,” he replie
s
worriedly
.