The Ballad of Aramei

  I sense that everyone backs away except for Adria. Their footsteps shuffle densely in my ears and every other sound around me is stifled, leaving only the sound of my blood pumping violently through my veins, pounding in my ears, and my own scream bounces around inside my skull. Adria, unafraid, walks up to me and says softly, “I love you so much, Isaac. I do. We’re in everything together; don’t you understand?” She brings her arms up to her chest, folding her hands underneath her chin and she presses her body against mine, her head lying on my heart. “In everything together,” she goes on, her voice breaking, “we live and fight and die together.”

  Her words sting me. Reluctantly, I wrap my arms around her and bury my lips in her hair.

  “Bro,” Nathan says carefully, “come on man, we have to do something.” I feel his hand on my shoulder from behind.

  “Dria,” Alexandra says stepping up.

  Adria pulls away from me slowly to see her sister.

  “I just got you back,” Alexandra says. “If you get yourself killed over a guy, I’m going to be so frickin’ pissed.”

  Adria chokes out a tear-filled laugh, unable to resist her sister’s charms. And for the first time since Alexandra has been here, I find myself glad that she is. Without letting Adria see, I nod my heartfelt thanks to her sister and her eyes smile back at me.

  “Nathan’s right, bro,” Xavier says. “I don’t know what you plan to do, but the one thing I think we can all agree on is that we can’t stay here.”

  I nod to myself a few times, thinking and agreeing.

  Harry stands off to the side with Daisy. I don’t like him anymore. This is his fault.

  “We have to get away from the town,” I announce. “Not only to protect the humans in it from all-out war, but we need someplace where we can stay until I come up with a plan.”

  Nathan and Xavier nod and continue to listen fixedly.

  Adria’s head jerks up like she just thought of something. “Isaac, what about the cave? The one your father kept Aramei in when you took me to see her the first time?”

  Alexandra wraps her arms around Adria from the side and they both stand there together, waiting for me.

  “Yes,” I say, “that’s actually the perfect place. Our father would never think to look there.”

  “And he never uses the same place twice,” Nathan adds.

  “Awesome,” Xavier says, “Then I say we get the hell out of here before he finds out.”

  “Wait?” Alexandra says. “You mean Trajan doesn’t know yet?”

  I shake my head. “If he knew, we would know.”

  “Isaac?” Harry says and I whirl around at him.

  “You stay back,” I growl, pointing my finger at him. “In fact, I think it’s better that you leave, Harry.”

  Harry blinks a few times, stunned. Daisy steps up beside him, thrusting his hand into hers and a hard line appears on her mouth as she looks at me.

  “Daisy,” I say, intolerant of her inevitable resistance, “Harry knew this was going to happen. He’s known all along.” My voice begins to rise and I point at him again, though my eyes haven’t left my sister’s. “Harry helped her do this and he could’ve easily stopped it!”

  Adria moves out of Alexandra’s arms and steps in front of me, placing the palms of her hands against my chest. “Baby, no, please listen to me.”

  Daisy’s trying to hold down her beast; her teeth are grinding harshly behind her lips, her breathing is becoming more rapid and unsteady.

  Adria’s rapt voice brings me back to her.

  “He didn’t know what I was going to do, Isaac. He didn’t know.”

  I look to and from Adria and Harry, searching for an explanation.

  Harry shakes his head. “She’s telling you the truth,” he says. “She was supposed to infect Aramei…not kill her.”

  I blink back, stunned as much as Harry was before.

  “What?” Nathan says. “How is it you couldn’t see that!?”

  Harry breathes in deeply and his gaze strays toward the trees before falling right back on me.

  “It doesn’t always happen the way it’s supposed to,” he clarifies. “And I’ll face the consequences of my failure, later. But not from you or anyone else.”

  Adria and Daisy’s heads whip around to Harry at the same time.

  “Harry, what’s that supposed to mean?” Daisy says.

  He walks up and takes her shoulders into his hands, looking upon her with calming eyes. “That’s not important; right now the only thing any of us needs to be doing is getting as far away from here as possible.” Then he looks back at me, seeking my approval. “That is if you don’t care I come along for the ride.”

  I’m still thoroughly pissed at Harry, because after all, he knew Adria was going to do something to Aramei and whether it was killing her or infecting her, the result as far as my father is concerned would likely have turned out the same way. I don’t know. We’ll never know. But right now, Adria needs all of the protection she can get.

  I don’t answer Harry directly because I can’t. A verbal response just feels too forgiving at the moment, but when I don’t force him away, he’s fully aware of my decision.

  Daisy breathes a quiet sigh of relief and laces her arm around his.

  “What about Eva?” I say, looking to both Adria and Harry.

  Adria lowers her eyes, indicating another unfortunate outcome and I’m not sure how many more of these I can take.

  “She was a Praverian,” Adria finally says.

  It seemed that Harry was about to be the one to tell me this, but Adria took over for him.

  “I drank her Soul,” Harry says. “She revealed herself to me. I think much like Aramei, Evangeline was tired and just wanted to be at peace and so I drank her Soul.”

  He doesn’t seem remorseful because of her death, but I get the distinct feeling that he is relating to how Eva felt.

  I wonder just how old Harry really is himself.

  “No one ever goes inside the cabin except the servants,” Adria adds. “Your father might never know about Aramei until he gets back here.”

  Adria chokes out another sobbing fit and Alexandra hugs her tighter. Adria may be strong and she may be able to come to terms with what she’s done sooner than some, but she’s still devastated over it. She cries into Alexandra’s shirt for several long seconds until she forces herself to suck it up.

  I let her have her moment with her sister; there will be more, after all.

  I look out at everyone else, my sisters and brothers, Rachel and even Sebastian who has been standing beside her the entire time (yes, I find it interesting, too, but this isn’t the time) and I say, “I guess the real question here is, whose side are you all on?”

  Nathan pats me on the back. “It’s not even a question, bro.”

  Xavier steps up and smirks. “I go where you go.”

  “Me too,” Daisy says.

  I glance at Sebastian and Rachel.

  Sebastian points his finger in the air. “This is and will always be my family, so I’m in.”

  Rachel grins wickedly from the side. “I go where the eye candy goes,” she says, and although that’s not much of a loyal response, like always I have to set aside her Vargas lineage.

  The few others left who have always lived in the house with us, but were refugees and related to no one, step up to declare their loyalty to me.

  “Let’s get on the road,” Alexandra says, holding Adria’s hand. “The only one here I’m worried about is my baby sister.”

  More Vargas sensibility, but entirely forgivable.

  Xavier’s mouth lifts into a grin as he looks across at Alexandra. “I totally defended your honor with that bitch-ass ex-boyfriend of yours today, not to mention, when I rushed into the depths of Hell to try and break you free from that crazy white-haired chick—I still don’t have your appreciation?”

  Alexandra rolls her eyes and her head falls back. “The depths of Hell? Really?” She shakes her head. “D
ramatic, aren’t we?”

  “What about Viktor and Ashe?” Nathan says to me.

  I have been thinking about what to do with them all along.

  I look toward the basement where on the other side of it they are still chained to the wall.

  “Adria,” I say and she looks up from Alexandra’s chest, “you have five minutes to grab whatever’s most important to you and get in the Jeep.”

  Everyone else knows the demand also applies to them and so they all take off together into the house. Alexandra seems reluctant to leave Adria, but finally she heads inside, too. Nathan stays with me.

  Adria walks up to me and just stands there, looking at me. Then she wraps her arms around me and lays the side of her face against my chest.

  I kiss the top of her head and say, “What are you doing? Five minutes, okay?” I want to just hold her forever, but we need to get on the road.

  She looks up into my eyes. “You are what’s most important to me.” And she pushes up on her toes and kisses me gently on the lips.

  ~~~

  Viktor is smiling hugely when Nathan and I stand before him in the basement. Ashe doesn’t look happy at all and the other two just kind of sit there.

  “You think you can defeat your great father?” Viktor says dramatically. He sits on the floor against the rock wall with his knees drawn up, his hands bonded by chains behind his back. I know one as old and as powerful as Viktor could set himself free from these shackles—not much can hold an Elder and they weren’t made for Elders—but he hasn’t even tried.

  “How does it feel, being unbound to her?” I say. A small hint of mockery lies in the question, but I also genuinely want to know.

  A flicker of pain moves across his eyes, but he retains the sadistic and humorous aspect of the situation, flawlessly. He smiles wide and says, “It feels wonderful.”

  I know that the biggest part of him is telling the truth, that he is happy to be free of her after two hundred fifty years, but there is that small part that not even he can hide entirely, in which he is devastated by Aramei’s death and her connection to him severed. A Blood Bond of that measure, one that has endured for so long, isn’t something any werewolf can just forget. It will take time and discipline and determination, but none of these things are things that Viktor Vargas has. He is his own worst enemy. He always has been. And I think that what’s happened will only push him further over the edge of insanity and that sooner than later, he will be his own downfall.

  “You can’t leave us down here,” Ashe growls, jerking his hands and legs, trying to get to me.

  “I can and I will.”

  “You know this war isn’t between us,” he says. “We could give a shit less about you, or about your tyrant father—let us go!”

  I shake my head almost unnoticeably, but I don’t mock him or give in to the argument he wants.

  But what Ashe said is entirely true. This war, generations of conflict between the Vargas family and ours, has always been about Viktor and my father. Viktor could’ve killed me that night I rushed in to save Adria from him. He could’ve killed me and bonded Adria to him as forcefully as he did Aramei. But he didn’t because it was never about me or Adria or wanting her as his mate. I know this now.

  It has always been about my father and Viktor’s hatred of him. And Viktor took it out on anyone that had ever meant something to my father.

  But Viktor is far from innocent in all of this. His treachery and his lies and the pain he has caused so many runs too deep. He passed any point of forgiveness a long time ago, though I know too that Viktor would die before asking anyone to forgive him for anything. He isn’t a broken soul that needs mending or absolution, nor does he want it.

  I nod to Nathan, indicating to him that it’s time to go and he follows me toward the stairs.

  “WAIT!” Ashe calls out. “You can’t be serious! I just came here for Alex! I just wanted her back!” I hear his chains pulling and loosening and pulling, over and over.

  “Bro, I don’t mean to question your decisions, but shouldn’t we take them with us?”

  I shut the basement door after Nathan steps out into the hall near the kitchen and then I slide all of the new locks recently installed in place. The door is made of solid steel.

  “It would be more of a headache than anything to take them with us,” I say, sliding the last lock over. “And Viktor hates our father so much that I know he would never betray us to him. He’s really on no one’s side.”

  Nathan nods thinking on it a moment and then agrees.

  “And when Viktor wants out,” I say, “he’ll get out.”

  30

  WE MAKE IT INTO the depths of Sugarloaf Mountain by early morning. The sun hasn’t even broken through fully in the sky. We park our line of vehicles along one secluded makeshift road and get out to travel the rest of the way on foot through the treacherous terrain. Humans rarely tread here. It’s why my father chose this spot to hide Aramei, where he kept her hidden for nearly a year before moving her to the cabin. The cave is deep in the mountain, away from the skiers in the winter and more than three hours off the nearest hiking trail.

  We shift into our mediate forms and glide along the tree-filled terrain with the quickness and dangerous grace of cheetahs gliding over a flat landscape.

  Adria is beside me the whole way and I’m so awed by her agility and the elegant nature of her movements. It’s as if she’s been a Black Beast even longer than I have. So powerful and adaptive and…so incredibly hot that I….

  Focus. I have to stay focused.

  The entrance to the cave finally materializes and the sixteen of us enter the area two by two and stop. Harry was able to keep up somehow; another Praverian ability I suppose, but I don’t care enough about that right now to ask.

  We edge ourselves through the slim entrance in a single-file line and follow the cold path as it snakes in one direction and descends deeper into the earth. I hear water dripping from several far off spots in the rock and the echoing of their whispers from behind me. Adria grabs my hand and squeezes it.

  “Are you okay, babe?” I whisper quietly.

  She presses her thumb tighter against my hand.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  I know this must be hard for her, coming here, to see the place again where she saw Aramei the very first time. I know it’s hard and it quietly breaks my heart.

  Several minutes later and we emerge from the pathway and into the enormous area that had once been my father’s ‘meeting room’. The only real evidence that anyone had ever been here before are the torches mounted on the rock, which Nathan lights as we pass, the enormous stone table situated in the center of the room and the skeleton of the man my father killed when Adria and I were here. It sits slumped against the rock wall, still wearing the modern clothes he had been killed in; they fit ridiculously over his skinny bones. The skull’s jaw is lopsided and hanging wide open. Its neck hangs haphazardly to one side and I can see the bones where my father’s hand had been just before he snapped them.

  “Gross!” Rachel says when she sees it. She jumps closer to Sebastian and I notice him slip his arm around her waist. “That is just nasty!”

  Adria stares at the skeleton, no doubt recalling the very second that the man died.

  “Will someone get rid of that, please?” I say.

  Adria puts her hand on my arm, but keeps her eyes on the skeleton. “It’s okay…just leave it.”

  I nod.

  And then I make my way to the stone table and find myself standing at the head, just like my father would. I glance down at my hands and notice how the tips of my fingers rest lightly on the edge, also just as my father’s would. I shake out of the moment to look up at everyone standing around the table, waiting for me to sit down first…and more and more I feel as if I’m walking in my father’s footsteps, destined to commit the same crimes against our kind. Adria is next to me. I hesitate and then sit, taking Adria into the throne of my lap.

&nb
sp; Everyone else follows suit.

  “Isaac,” I hear Adria’s voice in my head, “you’re nothing like him. You never will be. You’re better than him.”

  I look up from my hands and at her sitting on my lap and there’s nothing but love and understanding and trust in her eyes.

  I thank her quietly for her words of encouragement.

  And then I look out at everyone.

  “I know how my father will go after his vengeance,” I say. “His only priority will be Adria. He’ll want her dead by his own hands. But the rest of you—” I look to each of them individually, “—anyone who sides with me and rebels against him will be hunted down by his army and also killed. It won’t stop with Adria and you all have to know that.”

  “Like we said before,” Sebastian speaks up, “we’re with you in this all the way.”

  Everyone else agrees by nodding and the occasional verbal response.

  “But we can’t fight my father and those he brings with him by ourselves,” I state. “We’re going to have to spread out quickly and recruit the Alpha’s who would be loyal to me.”

  “Yeah,” Nathan says, “the Alphas are the only ones we have to convince. Gain the loyalty of the Alpha and his entire pack will follow devotedly.”

  “Does anyone here have a link to another Alpha?” I say.

  One of the refugees, a guy named Ben who we picked up from Kentucky six years ago, raises his hand. “I was close to the Kentucky Alpha once.”

  “Was? Once?” Nathan says warily.

  Ben nods solidly. “Yes, I ummm, well he’s my brother. We fight a lot—I kinda slept with his mate—but he doesn’t want anyone killing me but him.”

  Nathan raises a brow. “Well, okay then….”

  “Alright,” I say to Ben. “See if you can communicate with him. Don’t reveal our location.” I point at Harry. “Harry, can you listen in on his link to see if the Alpha is on our side, or just wanting us to believe that he is?”

  Harry nods. “Yes, I can do that. Not one hundred percent fool-proof, but if he doesn’t know someone like me is testing him, he’ll be easier to figure out.”