Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy) (30 page)

I heard James, “One more time
, Emma, who is behind this?”

My eyes
watered up. As much as I didn’t want to be upset, I was. I had no doubt what was about to happen in there. James had lost his temper. He warned her not to threaten me again, and that’s what she had just done. There was silence on the other side of the door. A couple tears slid down my cheek.

I headed out the front door where we had come in.
Outside it was daylight. I If I stood on the porch, the sounds of what was going on in the room were gone. James would kill Emma or he would still be talking and torturing her while she taunted him. Either way, he wasn’t coming out of the room, so I didn’t have to stay and listen if I didn’t want to.

I sniffled
, thinking that she didn’t deserve my tears. Twenty-two couldn’t come soon enough so these overly sensitive reactions would stop. It was so cold outside and my thoughts had temporarily interrupted my noticing that my body was shaking hard. Dead winter had hit Mineral Point.

I wanted to go home. I smiled at the thought of all my vampires with me for Christmas. It would
be a full house, and I knew my mom would love that. She enjoyed entertaining as much as possible. I think I had picked that up from her.

Collecting
myself a little bit outside in the fresh air had helped calm me. I heard a commotion in the house behind me and thought that maybe I should go back in. The point of me being there had been to try and pick up anything useful, and I had just walked out. I didn’t want to be so weak, but my mind was still struggling to come to terms with almost dying. Being around more death seemed difficult at the moment. I needed to go back for James. I had to do what he wanted me to do.

I took one more deep breath and headed back through to door into the old house. The door that led to the room
Emma had been in was open. I peeked around the corner and saw that James was on the floor with his back against the wall with his head in his hands. Emma was across the room with a stake in her chest. I shuddered.

It was over. Emma was no longer a threat to me or my friends and family. That
fiend was now out of my life. I walked over to James and squatted in front of him.

“James?” I asked quietly. He looked up at me and his face was distraught. “Should I
…” I trailed off and pointed over at Emma.

“No
, Ariya. We aren’t going to learn anything from her.” He wasn’t happy about the situation and it was obvious. The other Protectors seemed to be watching us, so I didn’t want to push him in front of them.

Emma had believed he wouldn’t kill her because he had protected her. I was
n’t sure if he had broken some Protector law by killing her, but I knew his sense of duty was probably eating at him right now.

“Can we go home now?” He stood up and wrapped his arms around me
, bringing me close to him before leading me out of the room.

We left Emma behind. Part of me was glad she was dead because it meant she couldn’t hurt my friends or me ever again. The other part felt sad. When we were outside the room
, I asked James if he was okay.

“No.” I dropped it.

Before we made it out the door, we were a taller, well-built man, approached us with what looked like a permanent scowl on his face. He had a strict face, one that reminded me of a military officer. He seemed a bit older than James, but not by much. He looked young, but his face gave away a much older age. He had to be a vampire. Why was he storming towards us in such a flippant way?

“What have you done?” the man
asked, looking at James as if I wasn’t there.

“I did what I had to do.
She wasn’t giving us anything.”

T
his must be someone important because James had taken his arm from around me and straightened up. Maybe he was a military vampire leader of sorts.

“You just weren’t using the right tactics. I don’t think bringing her for one was the best idea. She shouldn’t be involved in any of the planning for these sorts of things. She is just a human. She need
s to go save her.” He grabbed my arm like I wasn’t even worth giving an option to.

“Hey! Let go of me,
” I said angrily. Who in the world did this guy think he was?

James reached up and grabbed the man. “No, we’re done. We don’t need Emma and I don’t trust everyone here not to let her out again and cause us more strife.”

“What you want doesn’t matter. If you had done your job in the first place, this wouldn’t be an issue.”

Something about the way this man was speaking to James pushed me over some invisible line I had been standing behind. I had been toyed with all semester, come to learn vampires and creatures of the night existed, been beaten, bullied, threatened, and almost killed. I then had to deal with people treating me like I was a child even though clearly this whole mess revolved around me. Why shou
ldn’t I get a say in anything? I was stronger than they realized. I had stayed alive when I should have died in that cage.

This man, standing proud
ly and arrogantly in front of James after what we had all been through, was too much for me to handle at the moment. And if James hadn’t made me save Emma when I was in the room, I sure as hell wasn’t going back now to do it just because some stranger thought it was for the best.

“Excuse me,
sir
. I’m not sure who you are, but I’m standing right here and my name is Ariya. You don’t need to speak about me like I can’t hear or understand you. I’m a human, not an idiot, and I have had a long couple of days. I would like to go home, and seeing as James is protecting me, he needs to escort me there. I’m sure whatever this plan critique breakdown is can wait. It’s not like Emma is going anywhere now.” I pushed by him, which was a bit difficult since when I touched him, he didn’t move.

Man, he was solid as a rock. I w
asn’t about to look back, though. If I started walking, James would have to follow. Ha! I thought smiling to myself. Let that sink in, you big bully.

In an instant
, there was a blur, and then he was next to me.  It still amazed me how quickly he could move.

“Well, well. Standing up to my father is certainly not something I ge
t to see someone do every day.”

I s
topped walking. “That was your dad?” My eyes got wide and suddenly I felt horrible.

James was
beaming. “Even though I’m going to be in a load of trouble, that just made everything worth it. Nicely done, Ariya. At least he won’t push you around, if it comes down to it. I’m proud of you!”

His smile of approval made me feel a little bit better. “Thanks. I’m sorry
. I just didn’t like being talked about like that when I’m right there. I feel like you all say
human
like it’s some horrible thing to be.”

“Y
ou’re right. You have been through a lot. You are strong. He wasn’t trying to offend you, though. I think you’re brave and you can be involved in all the plans you want.” He was appeasing me and, even though it might not be sincere, I didn’t care. It was good enough for me, for now.

“Plus, I think you just gained his respect
, which is also something I know does not happen often. And being human, that’s not something horrible to be. You’re perfect.”

He kiss
ed my head and we kept walking. He took out his cell phone. He was brief.

“
Clean-up is needed.” He paused. “No, the apartment for now.”

I looked at him questioningly.

“I’ll explain at the house.” It was the only answer I got.

We walked back to the apartment together
, but James had locked up on me and was lost in his own thoughts. He seemed to get anxious, checking over at me the closer we got to the apartment. I had no idea what was going on. By the time we got home, he hadn’t said much of anything else.

Was he ma
d at himself for killing Emma? When we got back inside the apartment, I thought Caroline and Nick would rush us, but they didn’t even come out to the living room right away.

“Guys?”
I said.

James put his arm around me
, pulling me close, which seemed strange in the moment. Caroline and Nick finally emerged from one of the spare bedrooms. Something wasn’t right.

“What’s going on?”

“Come here, Ariya.” James pulled me towards the couch and motioned for me to sit down.

I sat looking expectantly around the room
, wondering what in the world I was missing.

“Ariya, when I was talking to Emma she said someone’s name that
… well I don’t even know how to explain what it did to me. I need more information, but it was critical that no one in that building heard anything else that Emma would say if she was telling the truth.”

I looked at James
, listening, but still wondering what this had to do with me. He took my hand.

“I would never put you in danger, Ariya. I need you to trust me that this will only be until I get some answers
, and then she’ll be gone.”

“You want me to bring
Emma back?” I asked, surprised.

“I need to finish getting answers so we can find
out who is really behind this.”

“Ariya, it’ll be three of us against her. It’s going to be fine
.” Caroline said smiling at me.

Hesitantly
, I stood up. They kept telling me to trust them and I knew I had to. They were professionals, and if they were on to something, I wasn’t about to stand in the way. I had to admit, the thought of Emma being back after I just felt so good that she was gone, was unsettling.

“If you need me to do it
, I will,” I said, standing.

We headed into the spare bedroom that Caroline and Nick had emerged from earlier
, and I saw Emma tied up, cold, and lifeless in a chair. My stomach twisted. James had his hand in the small of my back. He bit my wrist like he had before and stood close as I leaned over Emma to give her my blood.

After a few moments
, Emma flinched. Before I could even look for another movement, James had me behind him, completely covering me from anything Emma might pull. She was tied up to a chair, so I didn’t think she would get far.

Emma
searched for my eyes first and growled at me. Her fangs elongated immediately. I tried not to let my fear show, but I clutched James’ shirt involuntarily.

“I can’t believe
you staked me,” she purred, finally looking at James. She didn’t even seem upset.

“
I knew Audrey’s name would really mess with your head.”

My head snapped towards James. His
own face had hardened. Who was Audrey?

“Emma,
start talking,” he replied in a no-nonsense way.

“Why would I do anything to help you and that
pathetic waste of space?”

I had thought that James was the one who had the biggest temper in this situation
. I hadn’t expected Caroline to be just as pissed.

I watched in horror as my best friend stabbed Emma in
the side with a wooden stake moments after the insult towards me came out of Emma’s mouth.

“Caroline!” I exclaimed.

“Caroline,” James angrily turned to her at the same time. “I won’t make Ariya bring her back a second time. Try to show some control.”

“She isn’t worth
the fight anyway.” Emma continued to taunt them.

James grabbed onto Caroline’s arm
, holding her back.

“She likes pain, you’re o
nly encouraging her by reacting,” James said softly, trying to bring Caroline back. He was much calmer here than he had been at the house where the others had been. Perhaps that part had been an act, too. As he turned toward Nick, James continued, “Nick, get her out of here.” Caroline was struggling against James’ grasp.

Nick picked me up as I kicked
the air.

“No, Nick
, it’s fine. I’m fine. Caroline, look I’m fine.” Still kicking my feet, I tried to fight being forced out of the room, but Nick was stronger than me.

I had never seen Caroline lacking control. She was always the strong one of the two of us, holding it together and keeping me sane. That only became
more true when I found out she was a vampire and had to control her thirst on top of everything else. Watching her snap at Emma’s threats was frightening, even for me.

Slamming the door behind him
, Nick carried me to the couch.

“Nick,
Emma wasn’t getting to me.” I didn’t like them treating me like I couldn’t handle Emma’s words.

“Ari
ya, we aren’t worried about you,” I tilted my head to the side frowning at his statement.

“Protectors are chosen because of their fierce loyalty. Once we know who we are watching out for, we care about their safety above all else. We automatically feel the need to destroy threats
. Completely. Add in the fact that Caroline is a young vampire who is still learning and who loves you more than she loved even her own family, and you’ve got one volatile vampire on your hands.”