The Chosen Ones

  Part of me agreed with him.

  “We’re tired of sitting around waiting to be killed,” Will snapped back. Things had been tense since their argument the other night and I couldn’t help but feel responsible. “It’s time to act.”

  Will had been short-tempered and nervous on our day-long hike, making me wonder if he’d second-guessed his decision. Did he really want to do this? But now that I was here and Tom was down there somewhere, I couldn’t seem to voice my concerns. I took my lower lip between my teeth. Yes, I was being selfish, but I needed to see him.

  The dhampir patrolled the area, casually strolling back and forth in front of the gate. They held no weapons; they didn’t need them. Their arrogance, I hoped, would be their downfall.

  “Would they help us?” I asked. “The dhampir?”

  “No.” Will didn’t even bother to glance my way—he was too busy studying the scenery as if he expected to be attacked at any moment. I wondered if he’d ever been this close to a compound before. “We already tried. In the end, Thane had to kill the guy so he wouldn’t squeal.”

  I slid Thane a glance. He lay on the other side of Will, quiet, unconcerned. Sunlight pierced the leaves above, highlighting the hard planes of his face and that pale scar. As if sensing my attention, he turned his head and caught my gaze. I flushed, looking away. Of course he’d killed him. Why did every story to do with Thane end with him murdering someone?

  “We need to act,” Will whispered. “Might as well be now.”

  I curled my fingers into the dirt, eager to go. There, amongst the throng of people somewhere, was Tom. I tried to decipher his red hair from the light and dark brown, but couldn’t tell if any men were him at that distance. The urge to race down there was overwhelming, but I knew I had to be patient.

  “Once you do this,” Will whispered, glancing at Thane. “There’s no going back. You will be a traitor, and they’ll most likely find out what you’ve done.”

  In other words, he would not be rescuing anyone else. I stared at the dirt I lay upon, watching an ant weave its way around grass and pebbles. Never before had I wished to be an inconsequential insect as much as I did at that moment. Thane wouldn’t be able to save anyone else, and if Tony was right, it would be my fault.

  “I know,” Thane replied.

  A wave of guilt hit me hard. Tony had implied we were here because of me. I hadn’t thought much about it. I hadn’t wanted to. No, I’d selfishly accepted that this was Will’s decision. But now the importance of what we were trying to do overwhelmed me. Thane jumped gracefully to his feet and moved down the hill, leaving us without another word.

  “Will?” I shifted closer to him, so close I could smell his musky scent, see the scruff along his jaw. “Are you sure now’s the right time?”

  He gave me a reassuring smile, those dimples flashing. “It’s time.”

  “But--”

  “Jane.” He leaned closer so I could hear. “Despite what Tony thinks, I’m not doing this just because of you.”

  I flushed, but forced myself to hold his gaze. “Then why?”

  He glanced at the others, as if to make sure they were out of hearing distance. “I received a note the other day from Raven and he said it’s time to act.”

  Surprised, I glanced toward the compound, but Thane had already disappeared. So, we weren’t here because of me at all, but because of this mythical Raven. I was relieved, but slightly annoyed at the same time. Why hadn’t Will mentioned it before now? “And he said to act?”

  “Yes. Although he left it up to me to decide exactly when.”

  “Will, Thane’s getting ready to attack at the front,” Tony whispered the warning.

  Will pulled away from me, our leader once more. “Remember the plan: once Thane kills the few guards posted in front, we act.”

  I wondered what Tom would think when he finally knew the truth. Wondered how they would all react. But mostly I wondered how we could possibly get them through the woods and back to camp without being caught. I took in a deep, trembling breath. For now, one step at a time. We needed them, needed our own army, if wanted any chance of fighting the beautiful ones.

  “Jane?” Kelly whispered.

  I scooted closer to her. “Yeah?”

  “Are you afraid?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, reaching out and grasping my hand.

  A few minutes later Thane strolled toward the front of the gates, so casually that for a moment I’d forgotten he was on our side. I shivered, watching him work, knowing what was to come. “He’s like an animal. He kills with no conscience.”

  Kelly glanced at me. “There’s more to him than you realize.”

  Reluctantly I tore my gaze from Thane and the gates. “What do you mean?”

  She shrugged, looking uncomfortable. I’d realized early on they didn’t like to talk about him, as if they were betraying the blood drinker by divulging his past. I found their loyalty honorable and frustrating. “He had a love at one time, you know.”

  Shocked, I found myself actually speechless for a few moments. Thane had loved someone? That seemed impossible. “A vampire?” Is that why he hated them so? Had she broken his heart and this was his form of revenge? That, at least, made some sense.

  “Not a blood drinker,” Kelly said, surprising me for the second time. “Not even a dhampir. But one of the servants at the castle.”

  “A human?” I glanced at him again. He’d managed to talk the guards into opening the gates. They trusted him, but wouldn’t after today. That man had loved a human? Impossible. “What happened to the human?”

  “They killed her. Drank her dead.”

  Suddenly Thane’s comments came rushing back to me with new meaning.

  “We are servants to them. Just as some of your people are.”

  “Those who are lucky,” I had said, so completely stupid at the time.

  “No,” he replied. “Not lucky. Far from it.”

  They’d killed his love. I swallowed hard over the lump of emotion suddenly clogging my throat. I didn’t know what to think anymore. So, he did know what it was like to merely wait for those you loved to die. And this was his revenge. So be it. I could live with that. And I could certainly understand.

  “He was out at the time,” Kelly continued. “He’d always been able to protect her while at the castle, but he was sent to his first compound, and that’s when it happened.”

  “Enough with the gossip,” Tony snapped.

  As much as I wanted to keep questioning her, Tony was right for once. The gates were opened. It was time to act. Will tucked his feet underneath him and stood slowly, using the maple to hide behind. Tony followed.

  While Thane kept the guards occupied, we moved down the hill. Grass rustled, birds chirped and took flight at our approach. We did little to hide our progress, for we wanted the guards to see us. We wanted their attention on us, not Thane. We’d taken only a few steps when the guards turned. Thane took advantage of the distraction to leap upon the guard closest to him. We had surprise on our side. No human had ever attacked them before. Hearing his friend’s cry, the other guard tried to help. And that’s when we attacked. Racing down the hill, Will lifted his sword, Tony close behind him.

  “Go!” Thane demanded, pushing me toward the open gate. “You have ten minutes, at the most.”

  Kelly and I raced into the compound. As my foot stepped over that imaginary line separating the outside world from the inside, everything seemed to slow. For the briefest of moments I felt like I was back there again. Trapped in a cage. I froze in the middle of their commons area, where the ground was worn from their waiting and pacing for the beautiful ones. Where they’d stand on the last Sunday of every month hoping to be picked. Where I’d last seen Tom.

  “Jane? Do you see him?”

  Kelly’s voice jerked me from my stupor. I scanned the people who were slowly making their way toward us, drawn by the open gates, confused because they saw no beautiful ones.
They automatically started into two lines, trained so well that they were like the pet dogs we’d occasionally kept.

  “Hurry, you need to gather your people,” Kelly called out to them. “You must hurry. It’s an emergency.”

  It was finally a woman in a dingy brown dress who stepped forward, taking the lead. “Can we help you?” She was older, in her twenties and reminded me so much of Sally that it was hard to look directly at her.

  Thane brushed by me, centering himself between the lines. The guards were dead, obviously, or he wouldn’t be here. Will might be our leader, but these chosen ones would only listen to Thane, the one person they knew.

  “You recognize me,” he stated in a loud, authoritative voice that demanded respect. “You know me.”

  I searched for Tom, but couldn’t find him. What if I was too late? What if he’d already been chosen? Desperate, I started through the crowds, weaving my way between the two lines, searching for his familiar face. ,

  “I’m here to tell you the truth.” Thane started to walk between the lines. “You are not here for your protection. You are not here because you will be offered some great reward when you are chosen.” He paused, the entire crowd was deathly silent. “You are here because you are food for the beautiful ones.”

  They didn’t react the way I’d expected. But of course they didn’t understand. It was too outlandish, too insane for them to even comprehend. They slid each other confused glances, as if looking for answers from their neighbors. But I didn’t have time to explain. I needed to find Tom and fast. Tom would listen, he would understand. Where the hell was he?

  “Jane?” someone whispered, a low sound that I heard even over the murmured confusion of the group.

  I jerked my gaze from the crowd, looked past Thane and found the familiar face I’d been hoping for, there…at the back. “Tom.”

  He shoved his way through the group and I raced forward. Seeing him was a shock to my system. It had been almost a month, and as I raced toward him I tried to take everything in at once. His hair was longer, his face leaner, and I was sure his shoulders seemed broader. But it was when I saw the woman next to him that I pulled up short.

  Slowly, my gaze dropped to their clasped hands. Tom wasn’t alone, he wasn’t pining after me. He’d replaced me. But if I’d been surprised to see him, he seemed even more shocked to see me. I could imagine what he must think…finding me in men’s trousers with a dagger strapped to my thigh. I looked like one of the warriors I’d read about. Tom’s nightmare, I went against everything he understood.

  “Jane?” he whispered again.

  I started forward. “I can explain.”

  “Jane, wait.” Will reached out and latched onto my arm, holding me back. “Let Thanatos.”

  I wanted to jerk away from his hold and continue to speak to Tom, but managed to keep my mouth shut.

  “You are here,” Thane continued. “As food, nothing more than cattle. You are here to be murdered.”

  The entire group, at least thirty people now, all gasped in shock and dismay. I should’ve been focused on our mission; instead I could manage to do nothing but stare at Tom’s new love interest. He’d found that woman to take to the couple’s cabin after all, and apparently here they were allowed to touch in public.

  Catching my gaze, she turned toward Tom and I heard her whisper, “Do you know her? What do they mean?”

  Tom shook his head, that overly long hair brushing against the collar of his shirt. “I don’t know. I don’t understand.”

  It was obvious no one understood and I knew why…they didn’t want to believe. They’d been bred on romantic ideals of life outside these fences, they didn’t want to give up the hope, the dream.

  “Tom.” I moved away from Will and started toward him. I was acutely aware of the way his gaze took in my outfit, the look of bewildered shock upon his face at my unexpected arrival, or maybe the change in my appearance. I was someone he no longer recognized. But did he still trust me?

  I paused only a few feet away, keeping my gaze focused on him and not the girl at his side. “You know me. You know I’d never lie to you. It’s true. If you are chosen, they will kill you.”

  He released a harsh laugh. “But you were chosen, and you’re still alive.”

  “I escaped, but Sally…she didn’t.”

  He shook his head, stepping back, as if distance could keep the truth away. “What are you saying?”

  My frustration grew, and when he latched onto his girlfriend and pulled her even closer as if to protect her, my annoyance flared. “Tom, come on. You can’t truly doubt me?”

  “They killed the guards!” someone cried out.

  I cringed and Tom saw the truth on my face. The truth caused chaos. The younger children cried out, scattering toward the older ones. The older ones, who looked just as terrified, started shuffling into a group like deer in a herd. How stupid we’d all been. How unprepared. And now, I could see that fear clouding their judgment.

  “Help!” one woman cried out, as if expecting some beautiful one to come to her rescue. “Help us!”

  Their naiveté disgusted me. Kelly rushed toward the woman to try and hush her, but it was of no use. This was not going the way we’d expected and I couldn’t help but feel responsible. I’d picked this compound for my own selfish reasons. But we should have realized they would never turn on the beautiful ones. They had been brain-washed from the beginning. Will couldn’t understand it, but I did, and I could tell by the disappointed look on Kelly’s face that she did as well.

  “We need to go now,” Will said impatiently. “Are any of you coming with us?”

  Not one person stepped forward, they merely huddled together in a blob, terrified, completely clueless and utterly unready to accept the truth. They didn’t know us, why would they trust us?

  But I did know one person here. “Tom?”

  If I could get him on my side, maybe, just maybe the others would follow.

  “Tom,” I repeated, stepping toward him.

  He shook his head, looking nervous, scared. And in that moment I remembered and understood what Thane had said… there were two kinds of people: the kind who took the books and the kind who didn’t. I’d tried so hard to change Tom over the years, but I couldn’t. Tom would never take the books.

  “Tom, please.” I started to reach for him, but he stumbled back, out of arm’s length. “You have to believe me.”

  “You’ve never liked them, Jane.” He wrapped his arm around his girl, holding her close. She looked terrified and I realized he’d found the perfect woman after all…someone who would conform. “You’ve always wanted to be outside the gates.”

  “I wouldn’t lie to you!”

  “Jane.” Will gripped my upper arms, pulling me back. “We have to go now.”

  My anger flared, I jerked out of his grasp, desperate to make him understand. “I wouldn’t lie about murder, Tom! And that’s what they’ll do, murder you!”

  “Jane,” Will hissed, shoving me toward the gates. “Go! It’s no use. They won’t listen.”

  But I spun out of reach. I had to save Tom, even if I had to force him to leave. Suddenly, Thane was there. Before I could guess his intentions, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. I hit his hard body with a thud that momentarily knocked the wind from my lungs.

  “Let me go!” I gasped.

  “Some people don’t want to see the truth, even when it’s right in front of them.” He started toward the gates and I could only watch as I got farther and farther away from that cowering group. “We tried, Jane.”

  “Tom, please!” I cried out, although I knew Thane was right; it was a lost cause. The Tom I had known was gone, perhaps he’d never existed. This man was a stranger to me.

  At the gates, Thane settled me on my feet. As I regained my balance, I found Tom easily, still protecting the woman, whoever she was. As much as I wanted to be angry, I couldn’t, knowing that he was going to e
nd up regretting his choice. In those last moments, when he was pinned to the tabletop before the beautiful ones tore out his throat, he would realize I had been right all along.

  “Please,” I whispered one last time.

  Thane grabbed my hand and jerked me from the compound. We left the gates open, perhaps in a last-ditch attempt to free the chosen ones, or maybe we just didn’t have time to close them. But it didn’t matter, because a chosen one raced forward to close the gates, trapping them within their own prison.

  “Halt!” a dhampir guard called out, appearing in front of us, someone Thane had missed.

  “Go!” Thane shoved me toward the others as he blocked the guard. I could hear the grunt of their fighting, fists hitting fists, but didn’t dare look back. I’d seen enough death for the day.

  Where one guard appeared, another would follow. If I fell behind, Will and Kelly couldn’t afford to come back for me. Not this time. And so I ran. I ran as fast as I could even though I’d rarely run in my life. Shot back up the hill, ran so long and so hard that my entire body trembled with exhaustion. And although they quickly outdistanced me and I could barely see the rest of the group ahead, I kept going, trying to outrun Tom and his rejection, trying to outrun the realization that he would be murdered soon. And only when I thought I might faint, did I finally see them paused atop a hill.

  I managed to make it up the steep grade and collapsed near them. Above, the trees wavered in and out of focus as my mind fought to maintain consciousness. I clung to the exhaustion, needing the pain to forget.

  “It was a damn waste of time,” Will snapped breathlessly, slamming his fists against a tree. “And worse, we no longer have Thane on the inside.”

  I threw my arm over my face, squeezing my eyes shut and refusing to feel guilty. Raven, whoever he was, had wanted this. Yet, Raven hadn’t picked this compound. “I’m sorry,” I muttered. “If I hadn’t chosen this one, we might—”

  “They all would’ve reacted that way,” Will muttered, giving me reprieve as he rubbed his injured knuckles.

  “They might not tell,” Kelly said, always the positive one. “Surely Thane will kill the guards, so they won’t—”

  “Oh, they’ll tell,” Will snapped. “Stupid damn sheep following whatever those murderers say, never thinking for themselves.”

  Yet, Will was following some faceless man he’d never met. Raven.

  “You don’t know!” I cried out, stumbling to my feet, my anger giving me energy. I wasn’t even sure why I was defending them, but they were my family, my friends. “You don’t have any idea what it’s like there, on the inside!”

  Will’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he merely turned away and paced across the clearing. He couldn’t reply. He knew I was right.

  “Should we go?” Kelly said. “Get as far away from the compound as possible?”

  “We have time,” Will said, raking his hands through his hair. “If there are any dhampir left they won’t want to leave the compound unguarded.”

  “They’re morons,” Tony growled. “That’s the truth.” He didn’t wait for a response, but started back toward camp, a hike that would take us all day.

  Thane came up the hill, the only one not panting, the only one who didn’t look upset or surprised. Most likely he’d killed the guard. Another dead. I had to remind myself that this man had actually loved someone at one time, someone other than himself. But it was hard to remember when he was covered in blood and he stared at us with such cold detachment.

  Unable to stand any longer, I collapsed onto a fallen log. It was my fault. I’d picked this compound. No matter what Will said, it was my fault.

  And I knew the group blamed me. I saw the anger in Tony’s gaze before he had stomped away. I’d seen the wary glance from Kelly when she thought I wasn’t looking. I rested my face in my hands, completely exhausted, completely depleted. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t understand this life. I sure as hell didn’t understand why Tom hadn’t believed me.

  “We need to go.” Will started after Tony, Kelly following, leaving me alone with Thane.

  Even though I didn’t want to give up on Tom, I knew I had to go. Slowly, I stood, forcing my trembling, weak legs to hold me. The beautiful ones would find out soon enough what we had tried. And although we had failed, they would take it as a sign that we were growing too bold, and no doubt they’d retaliate. I glanced back, but couldn’t see the compound through the trees.

  “It’s fear,” Thane commented, as if sensing my unspoken question. “Most people are content to stay where they are, questioning nothing. It’s easy.”

  As much as I hated to admit it, he was right.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. Even though I wanted to look anywhere but at him, I forced myself to meet his gaze.

  Thane shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We would have eventually gone to the compound, and to be honest, most of them probably would have reacted the same way.”

  Just as Will had said. In his weird, cold way, I realized Thane was trying to make me feel better. Or maybe he was merely being honest.

  He didn’t wait for me, but started after the others. He could have traveled so much faster than I, but he stayed only a few steps ahead. He’d saved my life upon numerous occasions, but for the first time since meeting him, I could honestly say that I felt actual gratitude toward the blood drinker.

  Of course, knowing Thane, that gratitude wouldn’t remain long. But for now, for the hour or two it would last before he said something to anger me, I’d take comfort in the fact that at least one person was on my side. How very odd that it was a blood drinker.

  Chapter 9