"Lilith won"t settle for us just getting her out," Ethan told them. "She won"t leave that place unless we can take everyone with us. You should know that before we go in."
The two exchanged a worried look, but then Ellie sighed and nodded. "We"d better connect with the rest of our group and organize something as fast as we can. We"re going to need all the help we can get."
I woke in chains.
Lifting my head slowly, I tried to focus, to get my bearings, but it wasn"t easy. I was upright, I realized slowly, my wrists and ankles spread and shackled to the wall at my back. I was still wearing the clothesgiven to me by my mother.
My mother.
My heart twisted a little at the memory of her, because I was terrified that I would never see her again.
But I had no time to dwell on that regret at the moment.
Instead, I let my gaze scan the room. The wall at a right angle to minebrick. No windows. The one across from me, also brick, and in its center "James."
He was shackled just as I was. His shirt had been torn open, and I saw welts crisscrossing his chest and tiny streams of blood trickling from them. They must have given him something so he wouldn"t bleed out, I thought.
"How much did you tell them?"
He met my eyes. "Nothing."
I searched those eyes of his, and was reminded sharply and painfully of the last time I"d looked deeply into Ethan"s eyes. So similar, physically, and yet so very different, too. I felt relief, not heartache, when I thought of Ethan now. Relief at knowing he hadn"t betrayed me the way I feared he had. His brother had been working without his knowledge. All of that was clear to me now. Oh, Ethan had indeed lied to mehe had broken his promise and told his brother our plans after vowing he wouldn"t.
But that was a far cry from conspiring against me, from plotting my recapture and even my death.
"I told them nothing. But you don"t believe that, do you?" James asked.
"Why would I believe anything you have to say to me? You"ve already proven yourself a traitor against your own kind."
"But not against my own brother."
I stared hard at him, trying to read his thoughts.
"If I"d told them what they wanted to know, do you think I"d still be here?" he asked.
I shrugged as best I could with my arms stretched in a V above me, and held in place by manacles and short lengths of chain. "Maybe," I said. "Or maybe they left you here to see what you could get out of me."
"They don"t want to get anything out of you, Lilith. You won"t be questioned, and you won"t be tortured."
"No? And how do you know that?"
"They"re making no secret of it. You"re simply going to be executed. They"re calling an a.s.sembly on the parade grounds. Everyone here, captives and keepers alike, is going to watch it happen."
His words, each one of them, hit my nerves like knives plunging into my flesh. Each one made me flinchin pain, tremble in fear, dread what was to come. "How am I going to be killed?" I asked him, unsure whether I really wanted to know.
"They didn"t say."
I lowered my head, stared at the floor. "When?"
"I don"t know. I heard one source claim it would be before sunrise. Another said tomorrow night. Either way, it"s soon. You won"t have long to wait."
Raising my head, I looked for a window, but there were none, so I couldn"t judge the time. And then I realized how they would kill me, and I went rigid with fear. I felt my eyes widen. "They"ll stake me out to await the sunrise, won"t they?"
James shrugged.
"G.o.d, I don"t want to burn alive."
"I can"t think of anyone who really does."
"Are you joking? Are you being sarcastic about my impending death, James? Has it even occurred to you that you"re the cause of it?"
He blinked and averted his eyes.
"Your brother might just love me. Have you thought of that? He"ll never forgive you for this."
"No, probably not. But at least he"ll be alive."
"And he wouldn"t have been otherwise? Is that how you justify what you"ve done, James?"
He shot me a look that should have wilted me. "Yes, that"s how I justify it. If you"d stayed with him, someone would have found you sooner or later. They doubled their efforts to recapture Ethan when you escaped. They realized that more would follow unless they stamped out the spark of rebellion you two ignited. If it had been any of the other operativesanyone but meEthan would be facing the same brutal end that you are." He looked me up and down, then looked away, turning his head hard, as if he couldn"t stand the sight of me. Or maybe it was his own guilt that made looking at me impossible for him. "I had to capture you to save him. I had no choice."
"You really believe that, don"t you?" I was disgusted. "Why is it that their brainwashing works with some people but not others? How is it that you couldn"t see any other option? Like turning against them. Like sowing the seeds of rebellion the way I"
I blinked then, as I remembered the few bits of my past that had still been missing. "As I tried to do. I thought I could ignite a spark and then feed until it became a full blown flame that would devour this place whole. Why wasn"t something like that an option for you, James?"
He looked at me with such a puzzled expression that I knew he couldn"t imagine it as an option even now.
"I work for them," he explained. "I can"t work against them. They made me." "And they can unmake you. You were created for one purpose onlyto serve. To kill on command. To follow ordersto the point of death, if necessary. I know," I said. "I know because they tried to imprint my brain with all that nonsense, too, James, but I wouldn"t listen. I wouldn"t believe. I wouldn"t give in. And you did. Think about it? How much sense does it make that you should obey them without question just because they say so?"
He blinked, shaking his head. "It"s our purpose."
"Is it?"
He wasn"t responding to me anymore. It felt as if a wall had come down between us. He wouldn"t look at me, wouldn"t listen There was nothing but emptiness in his eyes. I lowered my head and sighed, giving up.
The door burst open then, and several keepers came inside. And I knew, with a gut deep horror, that they had come for me.
Chapter Twenty.
The keepers, four of themtwo men and two womenarmed with tranq guns, marched straight to me. But only one met my eyes, and I remembered her. She was Callista, the one who had always been as kind as she could without being discovered. And now I knew why that was. She was not truly one of them, never had been. She was a Sister of Athena, working here undercover, to learn the DPI"s secrets.
I met her eyes, felt her anguish, and, I hoped, let her know that I knew who she was. Then I quickly lowered my head again, not wanting to risk anyone else seeing any hint of a message pa.s.sing between us.
Callista was blonde, blue eyed and small in stature. Her movements were quick and sharp, and I sensed a strength in her that wasn"t readily apparent. The other woman had straight brown hair, very bad skin and no hint of such inner power.
"Shouldn"t we drug her again?" one of the men asked.
"She"s still plenty weak from the first dose," Callista said.
"You sure?" The men looked at me closely. Perhaps too closely. These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, I realized, were used to dealing with the Chosen, not with the Undead. They were afraid of me, as well they should be. Given half a chance, I would gladly tear out their hearts.
Callista shot their curious looks right back at them. "I"m the medical officer here, gentlemen, but if you think you know more than I do, feel free to drug her again. Guidelines, however, state that four hours between injections is sufficient to keep a vampire weakened and unable to fight. And it"s only been two."
The men looked at each other. One said, "They want her conscious for the end. I supposed we"d better not tranq her again so close to dawn."
"I thought we were taking her to the holding cell and the execution would take place tomorrow?" Callistasaid.
"That was before the latest incident," the brunette said. And I heard her mind as she recalled that two prisoners she thought of as rebels had escaped within the past hour. "Now they powers that be want to move things up."
In case those rebels had help, I suspected. And I opened my mind to feel for himfor Ethan. Was he here? Had he come after me? Would he, when coming back here was the last thing he had ever wanted to do?
"How close is it to dawn?" I asked.
They all looked at me as if shocked I had spoken at all. I hadn"t meant to, but I had to know.
"A couple of hours," Callista said softly. She approached me, and I tensed. But I sensed something. I saw the intensity with which she looked at me while her back was turned toward the others. As if she were trying to speak to me with her mindthe way vampires could do with each other.
Frowning, I probed her mind with mine and found the message waiting there.
I"ll slip you something before it happens. I promise you won"t suffer. I"ll slip you something before it happens. I promise you won"t suffer. I"ll slip I met her eyes and nodded once, by way of thanks. It was a small kindness, but all she had to offer.
She unlocked the shackles that held me to the wall, but I was still too weakened from the drug to break free and run for my life, though it was what I wanted more than anything else to do.
Another keeper came close, and knelt, intending to attach the chains that dangled from my wrists to the ones that held my ankles, but I wasn"t too weak to deal with that. I brought my hands down fast on the back of his head, forcing it downward just as my knee came up to connect with his chin.
When I let go, he slumped to the concrete floor. Not just unconscious. Dead.
I lifted my gaze to the others. "You really shouldn"t get too close. I"ll take as many of you with me as I possibly can."
They all kept their distance after that, even Callista, who had no cause to be afraid but was anyway, and stuck to pointing their weapons at me.
I glanced at James as I shuffled out, but he only watched me go. Mindless twit. The man must have the will of a grapefruit. Thank goodness Ethan wasn"t so weak.
They led me through the compound. It was a fair distance to the parade grounds, not that there had ever been any parades thereat least not within my memory. But this had been a military base once, and the name, I supposed, had stuck. We pa.s.sed things that were familiar to me. The barracks where I had once lived. The school building where I had spent my days. The gymnasium where I had learned kickboxing and Tae Kwan Do and swordplay. The firing range where they had only let us use blanks.
Then, finally, they led me onto the parade grounds, and I saw that a pole stood upright in the very center. Its bottom was embedded deeply in the earth. And there were iron rings high and low. They led me right up to that pole, motioned with their guns for me to turn around and told me to raise my hands above my head, so they could fasten my shackles to the rings.
I shook my head. "I"m not aiding you in any way. Come and, do it yourself, if you have the nerve."
One of the men did just that. With an angry sigh, he yanked something from his rear pocket, lunged at me and jabbed me in the belly with it. It sent a jolt through me that had me screeching in pain, then sinking to the ground as my entire body vibrated.
"Stun gun. And I"ll use it again if you keep up with the bull," he said. He gripped my wrists, lifted me and slammed my arms against the pole, over my head. With a quick snap the chain between my manacled wrists was anch.o.r.ed to the ring. A moment later and the chain between my ankles was attached to the other.
"There, b.i.t.c.h. Enjoy the sunrise." He smiled slowly, and then, before I knew what he was about to do, he jabbed me with the device again, sending another shock through my body.
I screamed as tears of helpless rage ran like rivers over my face.
Ethan lunged at the sound of Lilith"s scream, only to feel himself gripped by four strong young hands and tugged back. It would have been easy to overpower them, of course. They were only mortals.
But he let them pull him back behind the metal-sided building where they"d been crouching. He knew he would be killed if he dashed into the open, as he had nearly impulsively done. And if he allowed himself to die before Lilith was safe again, she would never survive.
"That came from the other end of the compound," Ellie whispered. "G.o.d, how did her voice carry so far?"
"We"re vampires. Everything"s intensified. Strength, speed, every sense, and the volume and resonance of our voices."
"We need to get closer, see what"s going on," Ellie said.
"I need to get closer," Ethan told her. "You two need to go gather your band of rebels and get them ready to fight their way out of here. We"ll meet in, say, thirty minutes."
"Okay," Ellie said. "At the far end of the compound, by the fence. We"ll find you there. Thirty minutes."
She gripped Marissa"s hand, but she pulled it free.
"I"m going with Ethan," she said.
"No," Ethan told him. "You"ll only slow me down."
"I"m going with you. You might need my help, and Ellie won"t. Rounding up the group is an easy job. All she needs to do is stay out of sight and tell one or two of them. They"ll spread the word and meet us. But you might have to fight, and if you do, I"m going to fight at your side."
"You couldn"t even begin" "I"m going, so stop wasting time."
Ethan sighed but gave in, then turned in the direction from which the scream had come. "Try to keep up, kid."
"Try to outrun me," the girl said with a c.o.c.ky grin.
Ethan took off at full preternatural speed, rendering him no more than a blur, there one moment, gone the next, to Marissa"s mortal eyes. And all to make a point. He stopped near a tree a few hundred yards away and waited, watching with undisguised amus.e.m.e.nt, for the girl to catch up.
Marissa came running, carefully keeping herself concealed from view, using trees and brush for cover.
When she got there, she braced one hand against Ethan"s tree, let her head hang, and sucked in breath after breath.
"That was pretty fastfor a mortal," Ethan said. "Well, for a mortal who"s been tortured for the past several days, at least. Which, actually, isn"t very fast at all."
"Yeah, yeah. You were right."
"You"ve never seen a vampire before, have you?"
"No. Only other Chosen ones, like me. Once they change you over, they we never see you again."
Ethan nodded. "I remember."
"I had no idea you could move that fast."