Anger spurted across Jack’s face. His hands sprawled on top of the table as he half rose from the chair. “And why is that?” he demanded. Braith glanced back down the hall. Arianna was still not in sight, but she wouldn’t be much longer. He turned back to his brother, Jack had become a man in the time he had been gone, but Braith still saw the little boy in him. “You’re to be married Braith, you are to take over for father. That is your world, this is not…”
“She is my world,” Braith interrupted sharply.
Jack stared at him for a long moment, and then his gaze slid slowly past him. Braith held out his hand as Arianna arrived at his side. She took hold of his hand, squeezing it tightly between the both of hers as she held it before her. Jack studied the two of them, he slid limply back into his chair.
“Dear God Braith, this is a mess,” he breathed. “Your father is worried about you Aria.”
She bit on her bottom lip as she nodded. “I’m sorry for that.” He ran his hands through his shaggy hair, nodding as he played with the fork Braith had placed on the table. “How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t. I knew Braith might be here.”
Arianna glanced up at him, frowning in consternation. “I didn’t expect him to look for me,” Braith said softly. “I didn’t think he would expect the two of us to be together, and come here.”
“I see,” she said softly.
“I only hoped that you had just brought her here, and not returned her to the palace. I only hoped that it was not someone else that had taken her,” Jack explained further.
“Now you trust me with her?” Braith growled.
Jack quirked an eyebrow at him as he tilted his head. “I just wanted to believe that father had not destroyed all of your humanity, as he has with Caleb. I knew you would be infuriated that I took her from you, I half expected you might try to find her again just to soothe your pride, but I had to believe that you would not punish her for something that I had done.”
Braith continued to glare at his brother, infuriated with him. It was the soft rumbling of her stomach that finally pulled his attention away from his sibling. “You should get something to eat Arianna.”
“Braith…”
He cradled her face gently in his hand. “I can hear your stomach rumbling.” Her face flared red as she ducked her head. “Come on.”
He led her forward, pulling out the chair for her to sit. He watched his brother wearily as he pushed her slowly in. Jack was frowning, his eyebrows drawn sharply together as he studied them. Arianna stared silently back at him, her gaze weary and resigned. Braith made her a plate of food and slipped it in front of her.
She hesitated for a moment, but eventually her hunger won out. She dug eagerly into the eggs. “You can see!” Jack blurted in shock.
Arianna froze with the fork halfway to her mouth, her gaze darted swiftly to Braith. She didn’t even breathe as she watched him, her eyes wide with worry for him. Braith rested his hand reassuringly on her shoulder. “I can,” he confirmed.
Jack’s eyes widened. “What? When? How?”
Braith shrugged, he settled into the seat beside Arianna. “Eat,” he encouraged gently. She took a few more bites, but he could tell that her appetite had vanished beneath her apprehension.
“How Braith?” Jack pressed.
He turned back to his brother, keeping his hand on Arianna. Jack may have taken her from him, but he was one of the few people in the world that Braith trusted with Arianna. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly.
“But your sight is back? You can see again?” he asked excitedly. For a moment his anger and disbelief was gone as pure joy for Braith blazed forth. Braith had never complained about being blinded, had taken it in relatively easy stride, but he had hated it. Jack had known this, and sympathized with him because of it.
“Sometimes I can, yes.” Jack frowned in confusion. Arianna was unmoving, he could hear the fierce beat of her heart, sense the fear that ran through her. He had told her not to tell anyone about his ability to see around her for fear that someone would hurt her because of it, that they would want to keep him weak and blind. Jack would not hurt her though, of that Braith was certain. He ran his hand over her thick hair, savoring in its silken feel as he tried to ease her tension.
“And other times?”
“I am still blind.”
Jack was completely confused, but Braith felt no need to elaborate more. He felt he could trust his brother with her safety, but Jack had taken her from him, he had betrayed him, and in all honesty Braith liked keeping him in the dark and confused. Arianna remained silent, her mouth compressed in a hard line as she watched them. Ever so slowly, she picked her fork back up and began to eat again.
“Well that’s strange,” Jack said slowly.
“I suppose it is,” Braith agreed.
“When did this start?”
“A little while ago.”
Arianna continued to pick slowly at her meal until she finally pushed the plate away. “I should get back soon. I’ve already caused my family enough worry.”
She didn’t look at either of them as she uttered the words. He could hear the pain in her voice, the strain it had caused her to say those words. He leaned closer to her, inhaling her sweet scent as he briefly nuzzled her hair. She finally turned toward him, her eyes morose, but there was an air of resignation and steel resolve to her.
“Arianna…”
“It’s ok Braith.” She smiled thinly at him, lightly stroking his cheek. “Thank you for bringing me here. Thank you for giving me last night.”
He grasped hold of her hand, hating to see her like this, hating the distance he felt her putting between them. “Arianna, not yet.”
She smiled sadly at him as she turned her cheek into his hand. “Yes, it’s easier to just do it now. Jack will take me back. It will be ok.”
She squeezed his hand, clinging tight to him for a long moment before she rose. His chest constricted, panic tore through him. He couldn’t lose her again, he simply couldn’t. He leapt to his feet, the chair skittering back with the force of his weight. “Arianna…”
“Its fine Braith, we will both be fine.” Though she said the words, he could feel the agony that radiated from her. Her heart was pumping loudly, tears burned her eyes, but they didn’t spill over. “We will be fine,” she said again.
He reached out for her, pulling her tight against his chest as he cradled her gently. He could stay here; he could become like Jack and hide in these woods. He could stay with her, help with the rebel cause. Make sure that she was safe. They could both be happy. But even as the thought crossed his mind, he knew that he couldn’t. His father had not destroyed the forest in search of Jack, but if Braith were to leave, and his father was to discover why, he would destroy everyone, and everything, in order to find him and punish him. If he ever found Arianna…
Braith could not finish the thought, it was too awful. What his father would do to her in order to punish Braith would be horrendous, atrocious. He could not put her in such a position, could not risk her life in such a way. She hugged him tightly, burying her head against his chest as she clung to him for a long moment.
She pulled slowly away, her head bowed. He grasped hold of her chin, tilting her head up to kiss her softly. She melded against him, a soft sigh escaping her. He barely registered the sound of the door opening and closing as he lost himself to the wonderful feel of her. It was a long while before he roused himself from her again, a long while before he pulled himself away from the sweet taste of her mouth.
She stared unblinkingly up at him, a small smile curving her mouth. “I am going to miss that.”
He ran his finger over her swollen lips. “I can come back,” he said impulsively. He had never intended to come back, it was too much of a risk to her, but now faced with the prospect of never seeing her again, the words popped out of his mouth. “I will come back.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks. “Braith, you’re getting
married.”
He shook his head, his thoughts turning dark. The last thing he wanted to think about was his upcoming wedding, and the bitch he was marrying. Especially not when he was holding the woman he wanted to spend forever with. “I’ll come back Arianna, as soon as I can. I will be back. I will find you.”
She bit on her bottom lip, tears spilled down her cheeks. “Won’t it be dangerous for you?”
“I’ll find a way,” he vowed, stroking her face ever so gently.
She smiled tremulously. He could tell that she wanted to argue with him, wanted to tell him no, but neither of them were strong enough to walk away. Not right now anyway. She enfolded his hands in hers, clinging to him for a moment longer. He kissed her again, before taking hold of her hand and leading her over to the door.
Jack was standing near the forest, his back to the house. He turned at the sound of the door opening. Arianna’s hand clutched tighter around his, a tremor worked its way through her. She didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to end their wonderful time together on a bad note, but she had to. “The blood slaves Braith, do you…”
“There will be no more Aria.” She stared at him for a long moment, wanting to believe him, needing to believe him. She could forgive him for these past months, she hated what he had done, but she understood what had driven him to it. She could not forgive him, or understand if he continued on such a path. There could be nothing between them then; he would not be the man that she loved if he continued to hurt her people. Seeming to sense her hesitance, he bent over her, his hand stroking over her cheek. “I swear Aria there will be no more blood slaves.”
She smiled wanly as she managed a small nod. He kissed her gently, his attention turning away as Jack came toward them, his eyes weary and sad. “Make sure that she stays safe until I can come back,” Braith grated.
“You’re coming back?” Jack asked in surprise, his mouth dropping as he stared at the two of them.
Braith glared at him. “Yes.”
CHAPTER 7
Aria glanced up at Max as he stepped closer to the map laid out in the middle of the cavern. His eyes were dark and intense as he stared down at it, his eyebrows drawn tightly together. William stood beside him, his arms crossed over his chest as he bit thoughtfully on his bottom lip. Aria’s father was talking softly, his dark head bent over the map as Daniel traced a line through it with a stick.
Daniel was the only one of them that had inherited their mother’s fair coloring. His hair was wheat colored; his fair skin speckled with freckles that made him appear far younger than his twenty one years. His eyes were the same bright blue as Aria and William’s. Aria sat back on her heels, her legs were cramping up, but she couldn’t move away from the map. She was far too fascinated, and horrified, by it.
Her gaze drifted slowly to Jack. He was standing off to the side, his arms folded over his chest as he stared at the back wall. Ever so slowly, his gaze came down to hers. It took all she had not to leap to her feet, grab hold of his arm, and drag him from the cavern and demand to know what the hell he was thinking.
Aria glanced back down at the map, swallowing heavily as Daniel poked the spot where the palace was. She had always had the rudimentary knowledge to read a map, but Braith had taught her how to read so much more. She did not share this revelation with the people surrounding her; she didn’t think they would appreciate it much, and no matter what she said or did they wanted to continue to believe that she had been manipulated by Braith. That one day she would realize that her feelings for him were not real. She was tired of trying to convince them they were wrong, it was wearing on her, beating her down, making her everyday struggle to just survive even more tiresome.
“Is this how you remember it?”
Aria didn’t realize her father was talking to her at first, until she noticed that they were all staring questioningly at her. She swallowed heavily, trying to wet her suddenly parched throat. “I guess; I didn’t really pay much attention. I didn’t get out much either,” she finished on a whisper.
Though it wasn’t memories of being kept as a blood slave that made her voice tremble, her father seemed to think it was. He gave her a sympathetic look before resting his hand lightly on her shoulder. He had been treating her like she was breakable and fragile ever since she’d returned and she was becoming frustrated with it.
“Max?”
Max was standing off to the side, his arms folded over his chest as he stared at the far wall. His jaw was locked tight, his forehead furrowed slightly. She hadn’t been abused, but he had, and now her father was talking about going back in there as if it were the simplest, easiest thing in the world. About all of them going back in there. “From what I recall, yes.”
Aria’s heart hammered and flipped, she could barely breathe through the terror constricting her chest. “You can’t do this,” she whispered. “It’s slaughter to go in there, we can’t.”
Her father patted her shoulder again before rising to his feet. He knew that this was reckless; he knew that it was crazy, but he seemed hell bent on doing it anyway. And she knew that it was because of her, because he believed that she been hurt and mistreated during her time with Braith. It didn’t matter how often she told him that she hadn’t been; he was convinced she was lying in order to protect him.
He moved away from the map as William and Daniel leaned closer to it. “We’ll send a small scouting team in first, have them canvas the area. They will be able to discover the weakest areas and the best places to establish our soldiers in. We will need to take the palace swiftly.”
“Dad,” she whispered, clutching her hands tightly before her. Her legs were shaking, her head was spinning. “The last time someone tried to take the palace it was a massacre.”
He wasn’t paying attention to her though as he moved away. Panic was thrumming through her. She couldn’t allow this to happen, she couldn’t allow people to die because her father wanted revenge for things that had never even occurred. At least not to her.
But they had happened to other people, and they were continuing to happen right now.
However, the rebels had made an attempt to take the palace when she was a child, and they had been decimated. In retaliation for the rebel’s defiance, the king had sent out thousands of troops that had razed, burned, and slaughtered their way through villages and forests. It was how her father had become the leader; the last one had been brutally murdered and hung within the largest village as an example of what would be done to others who tried to attack the palace.
“We will have to be smarter about it this time, go about it in a slower more methodical way.”
“I would like to go in,” William said softly.
Aria’s mouth dropped, she spun on her brother, her twin, her other half. “No William,” she breathed. “You cannot go in there.”
“Yes I can.”
“No! Your coloring, you’re too similar to me. They’ll know you. Tell him Jack. Tell him!” She was practically begging, and she was crying as she turned frantically to Braith’s brother. “Tell him about Caleb, and what kind of a monster he is. Tell him what Caleb would do to him if he discovered him in there! Tell him he is a fool! That they all are!”
“Arianna, enough,” her father said sharply.
“Who is Caleb?” Daniel asked softly.
“My brother,” Jack answered.
“The middle one,” Max elaborated.
“I thought you were held by the oldest brother,” Daniel said.
Aria wiped the tears from her face, shaking as she tried to regain control of herself. Acting crazed and wild would not help; it would not get them to listen to her. It would do none of them any good if she was a raving lunatic. She needed to be calm, and she needed to be collected if she was going to talk them out of this crazy suicide mission.
“I was,” she said softly. “Braith is a good man…”
“He’s not a man,” Max growled.
Aria glanced at him, hating the look of hurt an
d disgust that radiated from him as his gaze landed hard upon her. They would hate her, they would all hate her if they knew the truth, but at the moment she couldn’t bring herself to care. “My oldest brother believes in duty and honor. He values them highly,” Jack told them.
“Including holding young women hostage and using them,” her father interjected sharply.
“Braith was kind to me,” she said for the thousandth time, but none of them wanted to hear her.
“Caleb is not like Braith, or me,” Jack continued, his glance at Aria sympathetic but hard. “Caleb is like our father, cruel, twisted; vengeful. If he discovers that you are Aria’s brother he will torture you in ways that you have never imagined possible. Your hair color alone might be enough for him to take his revenge on you.”
“But your older brother wouldn’t?” William inquired the scorn in his voice more than apparent.
Jack stared hard at Aria for a long moment. She didn’t know what to say, what to do. If they found out that she had just been with Braith, that she intended to see him again, they would go crazy. They would think she had lost her mind, that her time as a blood slave had twisted her. They would not stop to think that she was with him because she truly did love him; they would assume that she had lost her mind, and they would lock her away. She would never see Braith again, and they would all run off half cocked, determined to avenge her for absolutely no reason other than bullheaded male stubbornness.
“No, he wouldn’t,” Jack said softly.
Aria couldn’t look at him anymore. She felt ashamed, she felt lost, and she felt completely awful. She was running around behind her family’s back, and yet she was sitting through this horrendous meeting discussing how to invade the palace. Something that could get Braith seriously hurt, if not killed. Something that could get members of her family killed.
She had spent her entire life fighting against the vampires, wanting to destroy them, and now she found herself frantic to do anything to stop this.