“I made them wait in their car.”
She nodded. “Good. Their fear will distract me.”
He gave her a quick bob of his chin and shoved the doors shut. Marcella placed her hand on the child’s forehead and her breath caught. The poison was potent. She felt it like acid in her veins. Fear clenched at her heart. As tired and distracted as she was, she wasn’t sure she could do this.
But then Diego was there in her mind. I’m with you. Tell me what to do.
At first she resisted the intrusion. Even wanted to scream at him for daring such an invasion. But a warm feeling of control came over her, making her limbs tingle. Like a calming drug. A breath, then two and she knew Diego had just made her stronger.
She relaxed and went to work reaching inside the child’s body with her mind.
* * * * *
“Now?”
Damion looked at the man to his left. “Not yet. Let her finish with the child.”
Damion smiled from the far corner of the parking garage. Things were going just as he planned. The woman would be weak after she healed the child. He’d done his homework. Nothing this big should be approached unprepared.
Soon he would take his prize to his king.
Chapter Eleven
Diego had never experienced anything like this before in his life. Marcella had placed her hand on the child’s head and he had felt what she did. When she had accepted his assistance the feeling had doubled. He had nearly doubled over in pain, so raw was the ache in the child’s body. And somehow, someway, Marcella had absorbed it into her body and then poured the disease into the air around them. Like smoke being burned off a flame.
When she had finally lifted her hand, he had found himself breathing heavily. It had taken him a moment to pull himself back to the present. “Call for the parents,” Marcella whispered, easing herself against the wall of the van. Exhaustion etched her face. “She needs to sleep but she’ll make it.”
He nodded, but he too felt the heaviness of what had just occurred though not to the extreme Marcella did. A few minutes later, Sterling shut the doors to the van as another Knight carried the child to her parents. Diego went to Marcella and pulled her close. They relaxed into each other.
“Thank you,” Marcella whispered. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
But then Sterling yelled. Diego stiffened, but Marcella was too weak to respond. The door to the van jerked open but Diego was prepared. He shoved Marcella behind him and rose to his knees. Both guns drawn, he aimed at his target.
He wasn’t going down without a fight.
“Don’t shoot! No disparden!”
A gray-haired older man stood before him, thin and weary looking. His hands trembled as he held them palms up in front of his body. Sterling appeared behind him. “It’s okay. It’s the father. I told him to stop. He wanted to thank Marcella.”
The man spoke in a fast string of Spanish and then tears fell down his cheeks. “Muchas gracias, seńorita. Muchas gracias.”
Diego let out a breath and let his weapons drop. David cursed behind him, clearly as rattled as he was. His gaze moved to Marcella and to his complete surprise, he realized she held a weapon. As tired as she was, she had managed to draw one of her guns. She was still sitting but twisted to face the front.
She let the gun fall to her side. “I so hate what I’m becoming.” Her eyes locked with Diego’s. “I could have killed him.”
Diego’s gut twisted because her words held accusation. As if she blamed him. “Marcella—”
The father began speaking again, rambling words of thanks. Marcella turned slowly to face him and spoke to him in Spanish. Her words were soft as she assured him his daughter would be fine and told him to take her home.
Diego stayed on alert, feeling unsettled. Perhaps it was Marcella’s anger towards him. He wasn’t sure. He simply felt uncomfortable. But even as the father turned away and Sterling disappeared with him, Diego couldn’t make himself pull back from alert position.
Something wasn’t right. “David, start the van.”
“What? I thought we were waiting on the others?”
Every sense he owned was on alert. The Arions were underground. They had to be. He felt something was wrong but he couldn’t get a read. “Start the damn van.”
Diego moved to shut the van doors and spoke to Marcella. “Right gun first. Left second.”
But it was too late. Two Arions stepped in front of the van door, both holding machine guns. One he knew all too well. “Hello, Diego.”
Diego stared at their visitor. “Hello, Damion.”
And then the guns went off and everything went black.
* * * * *
“No!”
Marcella’s eyes opened and her heart hammered against her chest. And all she saw was darkness. Cold, wet darkness. She’d been dreaming. No. That was no dream. It had been a nightmare. She’d killed the father. The man who only wanted to save his child. Like a cold-blooded murderer she had shot him dead.
She forced a long, bitter breath and the disorientation began to ease. It had been a dream. A damp kind of chill slid along her arms. It brought with it the ache of her limbs pressed hard behind her back. She blinked several times and tried to move her hands, but rope held them bound behind her back.
Realization came with a sudden rush. The van. The Arions. The child’s father. Had he gotten away safely? Oh…the child. What if she had been hurt? Marcella reached for memories. She’d almost shot the father. But she hadn’t. No. No. No. She remembered. It was only in her nightmare that she had shot him. She sucked in a breath. But it had still been a horrible thing, what she had done. To hold a weapon on a man and almost take his life. An innocent man who meant no harm. She was a healer not a murderer.
But then those monsters had appeared and she had forgotten the fear of pulling the trigger. She had wanted to kill. To take their lives. Yet she’d been so weak. And they had been so fast. Within a blink of an eye bullets were flying in the air and she had felt the prick of metal…known they were all dying.
But they hadn’t been bullets. They had been shot with tranquilizer darts. Put to sleep and then captured.
And now she was tied to a chair. Where they had been taken she didn’t know. Her eyes were adjusting. She blinked and her eyes skirted around the room. Carved walls and jagged rocks surrounded her. It looked like some sort of cave or tunnel. David was across from her tied up and unconscious. As was her aunt and Sterling. Their heads hung forward heavy with sleep or drugs. But they were alive and it offered relief.
Where were the others? Had they somehow avoided capture? Diego. Oh God, Diego. Where was he? She felt a rush of panic and forced a deep breath. Focus. “Focus,” she murmured.
Another deep breath later, she reached for his mind. And she found blankness. No! Diego! Nononono… Her stomach twisted in a knot. Please don’t let him be dead. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried again. It was hard to focus. She wasn’t sure how much time had gone by but it had to have been a while because she no longer felt the effects of healing the child. The leaden feeling in her mind was drug induced, she was certain. It made it hard to function, but she needed to find Diego. Slowly, she felt the low hum of his presence. It slowed her heartbeat and made her breathe easier. He was alive but knocked out like the others. Somehow, she had to wake him up. She began calling his name in her mind.
* * * * *
Diego’s eyes opened and his head snapped upward. “Marcella.”
“Ah yes, Marcella. Your mate. Your life. Your very breath. How sweet.”
The voice of Damion brought everything back to Diego. He’d been at the Area 51 camp for hours now. They’d been torturing him for information. For the Knight home location, new discoveries and battle plans. His chest was sliced open. He didn’t have to look down to remember. The dull throb of the wound brought the memory back to him as did the stickiness clinging to his skin.
“Fuck you, Damion.”
Diego said the words
but focused on his immediate concern. Sterling. His eyes went to him and he found his head tilted backwards. Blood trickled down his neck. So newly converted, healing wasn’t as easy for him, and he needed extra nutrients. He reached for his mind, feeling the pain and knowing he had to shield him from it. But if he did, would he have the energy to fight?
“Perhaps,” Damion said, drawing his attention, “Marcella is the way to make you talk. If we torture her I believe you might just come to your senses.”
Anger, pain and even fear sliced through his heart. “If you touch her, I’ll kill you.”
Damion laughed and walked towards him. “You would like that, wouldn’t you?” he taunted. His voice was as evil as was the source. Diego had never liked him. He knew Damion from his days stuck with the Arions. Before he managed to join the Knights in the battle against them.
“I will do it. Mark my word,” Diego promised.
Diego stared at Damion. With short brown hair and a short, flat nose, he resembled a pit bull. Even his body was corded and thick like an animal’s. A product of steroids and enhancement combined. He’d been massive even before the enhancements. So much so that he had moved awkwardly. But with the injections and transition to Arion he’d gained speed.
Even so, Diego knew he was a big chicken shit. Though he was powerful, he rarely battled. He stood back and watched others do his dirty work. But not this time. Diego was damn well going to get free and when he did…
“You’re weak,” Damion said, as if responding to the silent anger in Diego’s mind. “No food. No source of vitamin C. I doubt very seriously you will be doing much of anything but crying.”
He was tied to a chair, arms behind his back. Beside him was Sterling who had been just as tight-lipped. Neither of them had eaten nor had they consumed enough vitamin C. Their bodies were depleted and they had both been beaten. Yet he knew he had to find the power to fight.
Damion now stood in front of him. A knife extended from his wrist. And with a quick swipe of his wrist he sliced Diego’s jaw. He felt the pain of the moment.
“And you’re bleeding.” He smiled. “Not good for a weak body. But I think you leave me no choice. We will torture you. If it doesn’t work, we will move on to your mate.”
Damion’s eyes slid to Sterling and he moved towards him. He stopped in front of Sterling and looked down at him. “But first—”
His words were cut off as Sterling raised his head and spit in his face. “Bastard. Untie me and fight me like a man.”
Damion hissed and his teeth extended. Fangs were nice little weapons only more advanced Arions possessed. But it was with his knifed hand that he lashed out, slicing Sterling as he had Diego, across the face. Sterling’s head jerked with the impact. Blood was matted in his long blond hair. His skin was pale. Dark circles beneath his eyes showed heavy bruising.
“You’re not worth wasting my breath on,” Damion spat at Sterling, looking ready to lash out again. “You can’t take one blow from me.”
Sterling laughed, but it held a hoarse feel of pain. Diego knew he had to stop this now. Sterling was called the Renegade for a reason. He almost welcomed death. It was like he had a point in life and it was death.
Damion raised his hand to hit him again and then stopped, hand midair. A slow smile slid onto his face.
Two other Arions stepped forward as if they were answering some call. Diego didn’t know them but he did know their fists. Damion held up a staying hand. “Wait. I just had a brilliant idea.” He fixed Diego in a hard stare. “Oh yes. This is perfect. Here is what I am going to do. Either tell me what I want to know or…”
Chapter Twelve
“David!” Marcella had called his name and her aunt’s over and over. Both had stirred but neither actually responded. Her nerves were on edge. She needed help here. Even Diego wouldn’t answer her calls. But Marcella felt him in a stronger way now. She clung to that as hope.
She searched the room, looking for anything she could use to free her hands, but there was nothing. She needed David to wake up. There was a bottle on the ground. An empty orange juice container. She frowned. Why did everyone drink juice? Shoving the thought aside, she focused. The bottle moved and then lifted before flying at David. It smashed into his shoulder and fell to the ground.
His head moved. She felt her heart jump. “David! David!”
He slowly raised his head but his eyes didn’t move. She called to him again. And then with a flutter his lashes lifted. At that moment she felt so much better. “Where…are we?”
But before she could answer, the steel door that enclosed them rattled. And then Diego was being carried into the room attached to a chair. They dumped him sideways onto the ground. He groaned at the same moment Marcella gasped. She felt his pain like none other she’d ever experienced. It might have been her own it was so alive with force. Her chest ached. Her head. Her face.
“Diego,” she whispered.
I’m sorry, Marcella.
Even as she reached for Diego’s mind, trying to ease his pain, Sterling was flung on his side, also tied to a chair. She heard David curse and then a man stood in the doorway. A huge, ugly man with a flat nose.
“You can thank your mate for this,” he said with a snide bite to his voice. A satisfied smile slid onto his lips.
Marcella had a twisting feeling in her gut.
Marcella. Diego whispered in her mind but she didn’t look at him. She was afraid to look away from the evil before her. Marcella. I had no choice.
And then suddenly two of the monsters were grabbing her aunt. She moaned and her lashes fluttered. “What are you doing?” Marcella yelled. “Put her down. Where are you taking her? No!” She kept calling out to them. And Diego kept whispering in her head.
“Thank Diego. I gave him a choice. Really two choices. Tell me what I wanted to know or I would kill someone. I even let him choose who.” He laughed. “And he chose your aunt.”
Her chest tightened and she couldn’t find her breath or even her voice. But the door started to shut and her aunt was leaving her…forever… “Nooo!”
* * * * *
If he weren’t on the ground, lying on his damn side, life at this very fucking moment would feel a hell of a lot better. Or not. Shit. Marcella was screaming at the door for her aunt. And he knew the instant her attention was on him even before her words lashed out at him. He couldn’t see her face, only David’s.
“I hate you!” she screamed. “I can’t believe you did this. How could you let them take her! How could you choose her? Let them take me! Wh—”
“Marcella.” The harsh order came from David. “Calm down and let Diego speak. And Sterling is about to bleed to death on us.”
Diego could hear her breathing hard. And he could feel her shock at David’s words. Silence filled the cave. “Let’s give the man a chance to explain.”
“You of all people are telling me to give him a chance,” Marcella bit out. Her tone was low and controlled now but no less intense.
“He saved my life,” David said softly. “He earned a chance to explain himself. At least from me he did.”
“This is what they want, Marcella,” Diego said. “I either had to join the Arions with you by my side or they would ensure you hated me enough to join them alone.”
“What does that mean for my aunt?” she whispered. Then louder. “What did you let them do to her?”
It hurt to even say the words. The choice had been hell. “I had to choose which person in this room died first.”
“And you chose my aunt? The little old lady? What kind of man are you?”
Sterling’s voice came with the muffled sound of a swollen lip. “The kind that got the shit beat out of him because he refused to answer. But then they promised to rape you in front of him. He had no choice.”
Marcella started to respond. “So—”
“Marcella,” Diego said in a low voice. “I beg of you. Put aside your emotions and focus. I am weak and so is Sterling. If you and I do n
ot bind our powers we will all die here in this cave.”
“Not true,” Sterling said. “Marcella will live. They have plans for her.”
“What plans?” Marcella said. “What does that mean?”
“You know they want you,” Diego said. “Right now we all need you.” He paused. “I need you.”
* * * * *
Marcella wasn’t sure what to do. Or really what she felt. All she knew was she wanted her aunt to live. Diego’s words played in her mind. I need you. Well, she needed her aunt. Yet a tiny voice in her mind called her to reason. She could find her aunt and help her. First, she had to get untied and out of this place.
“Fine,” Marcella said. “What do I need to do?”
Silence. She didn’t like it. Marcella knew he wasn’t well. As much as she wanted to hate him right now, she knew she felt something quite the opposite. Needing to know he was okay, she cried out to him, but instinct made her do it with her mind. Diego!
Yes, mi hermosa, I am here.
Even in her head, he seemed tired. Exhausted. She wondered if he spoke in her head because he lacked the ability to find his voice. Marcella forced away the fear for her aunt. There wasn’t time to meditate. She had to find her power and her focus right here. Right now.
And as if he heard her question, Diego responded. This is what you need to do. Reach for my mind with yours. We must combine our powers. I am far too weak to do this alone.
What do you mean weak? She tried to focus on his body. On his injuries. How badly are you hurt?
Let’s focus on what’s important—
“We need a plan, damn it!” It was Sterling sounding rather irritated. “I don’t especially like the view here with my face smashed to the ground!”
“We are talking,” Marcella said. “Just wait a minute. Give us time.”
Sterling mumbled something hard to understand and ended with, “Hurry up. I might not be experienced at this mind reading shit but I can bet we don’t have a whole hell of a lot of time.”