The Ten Club

  I stood up and took her hand. “I know how you’re feeling right now. I really do. But we have to think. Are you sure King is gone?”

  She looked away from the disturbing scene before us, toward the open window. “I don’t know. I saw him swing for Mack and then his hand just sort of passed through him. King looked confused, and then he wrapped his arms around Mack’s neck and began tugging, like he was trying to grab onto him. Then Mack just fell to the floor.”

  Oh my God. “This is so fucking awful.” I needed to think. Without Mack, we were dead in the water. And poor Teddi. I knew how she felt. I felt the same. But we couldn’t afford to just sit and do nothing.

  “Let’s get Mack up on the bed.” I took his arms, and she took his feet. Like King, Mack was a big guy. Six three. Lean solid muscle. Broad shoulders. They weren’t meaty men, but they were strong and weighed a ton.

  Between the two of us, we managed to get him up on the bed just before there was a knock on the door.

  “Let me,” I said and went over to check the peephole. A robust-looking security guard stood there with an intimidating scowl.

  Great.

  I opened the door. “Everything’s fine here and you can tell the receptionist downstairs—”

  “Mrs. Minos, we just wanted to be sure you’re all right.”

  I noticed his name tag had the word Spiros written on it.

  “The receptionist is my cousin,” he said.

  “Oh. I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t really have hurt her,” I lied. I so would’ve kicked the hell out of her if I’d had to.

  “So everything’s fine?” he asked.

  “Yes. Thank you. All good.”

  “I’ll just be standing out here until Arno gets here.”

  Oh no. Arno. I hadn’t called him to tell him what was going on. He would not be happy.

  “Thank you.” I shut the door and turned toward Teddi, who just stood there with her mouth hanging open, her face as pale as a sheet of paper. My eyes followed hers toward the bed.

  Mack sat up, glaring at her with such a vicious scowl it took me a moment to realize.

  “Fuck. That’s not Mack, is it?” I whispered.

  She shook her head no.

  Christ almighty. I guess now we know why King was tugging on Mack. He was throwing him out of his body.

  “Well, well, well, Ms. Turner.” King turned his hateful gaze toward mine. “Aren’t you full of surprises?”

  “But you…you weren’t supposed to…”

  “Live? Oh, don’t worry. I’m going to die. That you may be sure of. But I think you forgot one important thing: Mack has been living in my body. You’ve killed us both.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  It took Teddi and me several moments of standing there to fully absorb the horror and comprehend the missing piece to all this—what really happened the day that King resurrected Mack. Teddi had been there, and she said that King had simply vanished into the ground. Then Mack appeared in his old body, the one he’d been born with.

  Wrong.

  We hadn’t seen the truth because no one had questioned the mechanics. I had been out of my mind with grief, too devastated from losing my husband. Teddi had been too focused on the miracle before her. And neither of us connected that event to King’s recent activity of grabbing warm living bodies for his dead, newly resurrected buddies. We simply hadn’t seen it: The soul needed somewhere to go. And when King used the chalice on Mack, he had given up his body for his brother.

  “Why the hell would King do this?” Teddi whispered under her breath, trying her best to keep from falling apart.

  I wished I knew. I truly did. Because if King had seen this all coming, then it meant he knew the ink would take Mack down with him. It kills the body and the soul.

  Oh God. If I was right, that meant if it came down to our lives versus King’s and Mack’s, King wanted us to live. King had chosen me—us—over his brother. He likely had hoped, however, that he could keep us all alive, that it would not come to this.

  It was a bittersweet moment.

  I went to the little sitting area by the door and dropped down, the tears forming in my eyes.

  Teddi sat beside me, her eyes glazed over and face lacking any emotion. She was in shock. So was I.

  “He’s dying,” she whispered, giving my hand a light squeeze.

  I across the room at the man lying on the bed, trying to make out the details of King’s ethereal beauty through the blur of salty tears screaming from my face. I pressed the moisture from my eyes with my palms and wiped them on the back of my jeans. King’s face grew paler by the second. His eyes were closed and breathing rapid.

  I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t put the pieces together inside my head of what to do. The blow was just too much. Losing King. Losing Mack. Knowing King did love us enough to give up someone he held so dear.

  It was all too much.

  “You have to ask him, Mia,” Teddi whispered. “You have to try. Even if you have to lie.”

  I stared into her bloodshot green eyes, hearing her, not hearing her.

  “Mia,” she hiccupped down a breath, “you have to try. I can’t know that Mack died for nothing. You can’t do that to me.”

  I shook my head. So much confusion. “I don’t understand.”

  “The names, Mia. Get the names. And do it quickly.”

  Names, names. She wanted names. “What names?”

  “10 Club.”

  Oh. Them. They didn’t feel real. None of this did. I felt numb from head to toe.

  I looked across the hotel room at the man in the bed, his face nearly lifeless, and rallied the will to stand. One step, then another, and I was kneeling next to him, pressing his cold hand to my cheek.

  “I will never understand any of this, King, but if you can hear me—the real you—I just want you to know I forgive you.” It was painful and horrific, but I was suddenly thinking about what I might do to save him or my children. Would I sleep with someone if it meant saving their lives?

  Yes.

  I would.

  I would give everything I had—my life, my soul, my body—in a heartbeat. Damn you, King. I finally understood what he’d done. He’d used everything in his power, even his body, to try to save someone he loved with all his heart. There wasn’t a piece of himself he wouldn’t sacrifice for us, and I could no longer hold his infidelity against him. Nor could I blame him for abandoning us or the fact he’d come back so broken. Because now I knew, without a doubt, that none of this had been the desired outcome. But you knew you would have to give up everything to try to save Mack, didn’t you, King? However, King also knew himself. He’d acquired so much knowledge and power over thousands of years, he probably feared he might not stay dead. And if he’d had to trade his soul for Mack’s, he knew he’d return as a monster. So King had made sure there was some sort of fail-safe if the worst came to be. The ink. In short, King had been willing to give his own life for Mack’s, but not ours.

  “I love you,” I whispered, holding his hand to my cheek. “And if you’re still in there somewhere fighting, I need your help. We need to know the names to put on the list, King.”

  He coughed and wheezed, his blue eyes slitting open. “I am touched, Ms. Turner. Truly,” he mumbled. “But it is as I told you. That man is gone.”

  I looked into his eyes. “You’re not coming back this time, King. Why not just help me? Why not help your son and your daughter? Because 10 Club will take her the moment she’s born; some sadistic man will make her his slave or worse. You can’t possibly want that for her.”

  King smiled weakly. “If they’re truly my children, fear will make them strong, and they will rise to the top.”

  I felt my blood sour in horror. “No. No, they’ll live tormented lives. They’ll become like you—if they survive.”

  King opened his eyes wide and alert. “I always believed a little darkness is healthy in a person. Good for the soul.”

  I dropped my forehead to his hand.
“What you’ve created isn’t a little darkness. It’s so much worse. Why would you want this?”

  “It is,” he said with a breathy voice, “as I told you. Power is everything. And I am through living like a cockroach in the shadows. I am a king. A powerful king born to rule, and all I needed was the right army.”

  I lifted my head and tilted it to the side. “You wanted to be king of…everyone?”

  He smiled lopsidedly. “People are savages, Ms. Turner. Simply look at this world—the mass killings over oil, rape, genocide, corruption. What the world needs is a cruel hand to keep it in check.”

  So that was his plan? Resurrect the most powerful people he’d ever known, use some sort of magic to make them all loyal to him—like he’d done with the Spiros—and then be king again.

  “You’re out of your mind,” I whispered.

  “Am I?” he replied in a slow voice, his breathing labored. “10 Club already runs this world. I merely proposed to bring them into the light and make it official. With my people at the helm, of course.”

  “Who are your people, King? Give me the names.”

  “Talia, I’ve only got a minute. You are to take over as planned.”

  Talia? That was when I noticed he wasn’t talking to me. He had a cell in his hand. It had to be from Mack’s pocket. He must’ve dialed when I had my head down.

  “Shit!” I snatched the device away right as Talia’s voice came over the speaker.

  “I will find a way to bring you back, King,” Talia said.

  “What? No!” I gasped.

  “Is that bitch there with you?” she said. “Tell her I’m coming for her.”

  I ended the call and chucked the phone against the wall. “Goddammit! Why would you do that?”

  King flashed a weak, but sadistic grin. “Because I never give up. And Talia won’t either.” The light faded from his eyes.

  “No,” I muttered in horror. “No! No. You can’t do this!” I pounded on his chest. “Give me the names, for fuck’s sake,” I screamed, crying. “You can’t do this to us!”

  “Mia.” I felt a gentle tug on my arm, but the emotions had hold of me now, the images of the torture and torment my children would endure.

  “No!” I pushed her back and straddled him, beating his chest. “You can’t do this!”

  “He’s gone, Mia. We lost.” Teddi cried hysterically.

  “No…” I rested my forehead on his chest and sobbed. “Please God. Don’t do this to us.”

  Sadly, no one was listening. King was dead. Mack was dead. And 10 Club was alive. With fucking Talia at the helm. Oh God.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I don’t remember Arno arriving to the hotel room. I don’t remember them taking the body away to be buried for the second time in the king’s sacred tomb, wherever the hell that was. I don’t remember Teddi coming home with me. I don’t remember eating or drinking or pissing or breathing or anything.

  My mind was consumed by the most horrific darkness imaginable. Devastation was five steps up from where I lived.

  The most powerful, evil people ever to cross King’s path were now free, alive, and working as a team under the world’s most sadistic bitch. In some ways, Talia was worse than King because she enjoyed killing just for fun. King always had a reason for everything he did, even if they weren’t nice reasons. But Talia, who had been King’s partner of sorts before I came along, had been obsessed with him. I suspected that was why he handed over 10 Club to her. She wouldn’t rest until she brought King back, and she would rule 10 Club with an iron fist.

  And soon, 10 Club will come for me. They would come for Teddi and Arch, too.

  Worst of all, the pain of losing King had been reignited. I could no longer shield my grief with bitterness and anger. The man I loved did everything he could to save his brother and keep us all safe. He cared nothing for himself or his own happiness. We were all that mattered.

  I got up from bed and glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Three a.m.

  I went to Arch’s room, next to mine, and found the crib empty. I stumbled my way down the hall to Ypirétria’s room, but found Teddi curled up in her bed instead. She had her arms wrapped around Arch. A box of spent tissues lay on the nightstand alongside piles of crumpled wads flowing onto the floor.

  I sighed. “I’m so sorry, Theodora.” She was pregnant and had lost a man that she’d been born to love. And thanks to me, she was now alone. I’d put that nail in Mack’s coffin. I should’ve seen what would happen.

  I slid into bed, putting Arch between us. The light in the hallway shined on his pouty little lips, catching the lines of his thick black lashes fanning across his chubby cheeks. I slid my palm over his stomach. “I love you, little guy.”

  “You’re awake.” Teddi looked at me with those stunning green eyes.

  “I don’t know. Am I?” I went back to stroking Arch’s little stomach.

  “He was crying. He misses you.”

  “I missed him, too.” Even if I hadn’t been lucid. “How many hours was I out?”

  “You were gone for over a day.”

  That took a moment to sink in. “How’s that possible?”

  “You were inconsolable. We had to sedate you.”

  “Oh.”

  “I wouldn’t let them drug you tonight, though,” she said.

  “Do I want to know why?” I whispered.

  “Arno said he heard rumors around town of a big party at King’s place tonight. People are flying in from all over. Important people.”

  Oh fuck. A 10 Club gathering. “We have to leave here.”

  “That’s the problem,” she said. “There isn’t a safer place.”

  I nodded solemnly. She was right. King had done everything possible to make this a fortress where “bad things” couldn’t enter. That said, “Sooner or later we’ll have to leave. We can’t live in here forever.”

  “I know,” she said. “So what are we going to do, Mia?”

  Her question wasn’t rhetorical. She looked to me for the answer. I was the only way she could see out.

  I rolled on to my back and stared at the ceiling. I had nothing.

  “Please, Mia. Mack and King are gone. They’re not coming back, and I don’t know anything about Seers or 10 Club or how to get out of this. But you do. You have to know of something we can do.”

  “I don’t.” I let out a breath. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t know.” I wished I did.

  “Mia.” She sat up and crossed her legs. “If you even think of giving up, I will rip out your goddamned eyes. You can’t let me die. You can’t let Mack’s baby die. You can’t let your entire family go out like this.”

  I covered my eyes with my arm, but didn’t speak.

  “Please, Mia. Whatever possibility there is not to be raped, tortured, murdered, and not to watch our children die, you have to do it. Just tell me what to do.”

  I scrubbed my mind, trying to ignore the throbbing heartache in my chest. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” I got up from the bed and scooped up Arch, intending to tuck him back in his crib.

  Teddi dashed to the doorway and held out her arm. “I refuse to let it end here, Mia. I fucking refuse.”

  “I don’t know what to do, Teddi. If we run, they’ll track us down. If we fight, we’ll lose. There are too many of them.” King had been right; the only thing that mattered was power. If you happen to enjoy staying alive.

  “Try fucking harder,” she snarled. “Think. Think about anything King told you, anything you saw or learned or…anything to end them.”

  I had tried. A million times I’d thought about how to kill them off. The problem was they had eyes and ears everywhere. There wasn’t a country or government agency they didn’t have their claws into. I’d even seen A-list actors at 10 Club parties. They’re like a giant cancer.

  “Wait.” My eyes locked with hers as I swayed Arch in my arms.

  “What?”

  “I don’t know—I mean, it probably won’t work, but it might
.”

  “What?” she snapped, making Arch squirm and whimper.

  I started bouncing him gently in my arms. “They’re like an illness. One big organism.”

  “And?” she said.

  “Mack said we need names, but what if we don’t? What if the only thing we need to write with that ink is ‘10 Club’?”

  She blinked at me. “It can’t be that easy.”

  A loud thump on the front door made us both jump. Suddenly, the house exploded with loud noises—windows breaking, doors falling, men screaming.

  “They’re here, Mia! How did they get in?” Teddi shrieked.

  “I don’t know.” I took a breath as Arch wailed.

  “Where’s the ink?” she asked.

  I jerked my head to the left. “In the safe.” She scrambled behind me as I made my way through my bedroom to the walk-in closet. “Take him.” I handed off Arch, who screamed like a banshee. My trembling hands punched in the code, and somewhere in the back of my mind I heard them coming. 10 Club slaves, Talia, Hagne, I didn’t know. But they were here for us.

  How had they gotten in?

  The safe popped open just as gunshots thundered inside the house.

  Fuck. Fuck! I could only hope the bullets had come from the Spiros’s side of the fight.

  “Hurry, Mia. Hurry!” Teddi squealed as quietly as a person who was about to die could.

  My shaking hands pulled the paper, pen, and ink from the safe. “Go close the bedroom door and lock it,” I commanded. It would buy us two seconds, and I’d take what I could get.

  Teddi did what I asked, and I got to my knees, spreading out the paper. I uncorked the tiny bottle and dipped the pen, knocking the ink over in the process.

  “Shit. No, no, no.” I saturated the tip with what I could and went to writing.

  10 Club.

  I looked up at Teddi and nodded. “It’s done.”

  A loud pounding on the door halted our breathing.

  “We don’t have enough time. They’ll get inside before it works.” Teddi clutched Arch to her chest.