CHAPTER NINETEEN

Endgame

I shuddered when my hand reached for the handle of the Society’s inner chamber, remembering the night that Xavier closed the door to the conference room as the usher carried me away. Standing in the presence of those people with Xavier was frightening, but taking them on myself—beyond terrifying. When I opened the door they were all seated, adorned in their black ceremonial robes. I caught the gasp before it left my throat and focused all my concentration on keeping the shocked look from my face.

Victoria sat at the other end of the table with Annie perched on her lap. The snide smile that crossed Victoria’s face filled me with rage.

“Welcome, Elaine. Before we get to your initiation, a few housekeeping items. We should probably take a moment to thank Charles—God rest his soul—for fulfilling his legacy. He’s still fucking with me, and he’s been dead for years.” She leaned back in her chair. “Everyone should also know that you are the daughter of my subject, Daniel Simon Watkins. You are also the reason he’s incarcerated. Last, but not least, thanks to Oscar, you somehow think you’ve earned your place at this table.”

“I don’t think Victoria. The place is rightfully mine.” I tore my gaze from her and made eye contact with each of the six men that sat at the table with her. All but one looked old and weary. How much destruction had they caused during their long lives?

“There are formalities as I’m sure you’re aware, even though Oscar may have vacated his seat to leave it to you. We also have rules about those that mean to do us harm. I’ve been told some very disturbing things. Isn’t that right, my pet?” She stroked Annie’s cheek. “Open up love, I have your reward. So much more potent than your original drug of choice and less visible.” Her other hand stroked the scars on Annie’s arm.

Annie opened her mouth.

Victoria popped a capsule in Annie’s mouth and handed her a drink from the glass of water that sat on the table. “You didn’t think that she truly left us, did you? Nobody gets out alive.” Victoria rubbed Annie’s back like one might a small child.

“Just cut the bullshit, Victoria. What are you talking about?”

“Annie told us about your plan.”

“And what plan was that?” I hadn’t told Annie about Xavier, and she’d managed to do her part to get Sebastian in. If she had squealed, she only knew so much. So even if I didn’t make it out of the room alive, Xavier was still going to ruin their day.

“Why don’t you have a seat? Join us,” she urged, motioning her crimson-tipped fingers toward an empty chair.

“Why would I do that? It doesn’t seem like you’re welcoming me with open arms.” I looked around at all the other members. “And why do you let her do all the talking?”

A gray-haired man with wrinkled skin and a rounded face spoke. Though I couldn’t be entirely sure because of the mask, he was most likely the man named Samuel that I’d seen on the photo pasted to Annie’s wall. “She’s the one with the evidence against you. It’s her place to speak. Besides, she’s the Master responsible for your father’s success.”

“So that’s how it works. You fuck enough people over, and you get anointed queen?”

He laughed. “No. If your subject gains the notoriety your father did, it gives you more power. If she hadn’t died, Lydia would still be seated at the head of council.” The reverence in his voice for Xavier’s late-wife was tangible. “Lydia’s reach with Xavier goes far beyond the several dozen people your father impacted. Good or bad doesn’t figure into it. I’m afraid that the rest of us are still waiting for our chance to best Victoria. It’s difficult, since most of us do not enjoy her tactics.”

I straightened my back, trying to exude as much confidence as possible, and crossed my arms. “So let’s stop pissing around and get down to business. Are you swearing me in or not?”

Victoria’s lips curled into a wicked smile. “Not. You really are too stupid to be one of us. It wouldn’t be any fun. I mean who enlists a drug addict to help them with a group as powerful as ours?”

“Well, I’m obviously not as stupid as you think, because I didn’t enlist her help.” I mocked her with the same smug smile she offered me.

She narrowed her eyes. “So you didn’t ask her to come here and steal from us, the family you’re asking to be part of?”

It was all I could do to hold back the sigh of relief. Annie had lied to them.

“Oh…I didn’t exactly ask her to steal the pen you have no business having.” I shrugged a shoulder and feigned indifference, “But, if she happened to stumble upon it, I would sleep a little better knowing it wasn’t in your hands. Sort of gives you an unfair advantage, now doesn’t it? I mean after all, if threats against members count, did you tell them about how Craver Adams tried to kill me?”

One of the men gasped.

“That’s your side of the story. He’s dead, so we’ll never know his.”

“The issue of the pen is between you and me, Victoria, not the council. So what the fuck do I need to do to make this official? Because by this time next year, Victoria, you’re going to be sitting in a different seat.”

A tall man with red-hair and a full beard chimed in. “Show us your wrist. I need to see for myself that you were claimed by Charles.”

I pulled back my sleeve and extended my arm.

“When did he do it?” the man asked.

“Three years ago. He ran me off the road and somehow managed to do it while I was unconscious. I was influenced, not willing. It was Oscar, who sat at this very council table the last time I was here, who told me about my claim to his seat. From the way he expedited the process, he obviously felt strongly about my taking his place.”

The man sitting closest to me cleared his throat, and then brushed his wavy dark hair behind his ear. “Elaine’s place is incontestable. Oscar took all of the proper steps. And if your only claim against her is that she was trying to steal evidence that vindicates her from your impropriety, I can hardly see how that would interfere. It’s not an action against the Society, that’s an act against you.” He looked up at me. “Sit down and take your place among us. I’m Antonio. I’ll be your counselor. Once you’ve learned all the rules, you can start to participate.” He motioned to the seat.

The way the men interacted with Victoria made me wonder if they all weren’t tired of her ways, but I had to remember what Sebastian said about Charles. His charisma hid his treachery. Antonio could easily be playing on my insecurities with Victoria. I gripped the arm of the chair and pulled out the seat. Glancing at the clock displayed on the lower lever of the computer monitor, the raid would begin any minute. I lowered myself into the chair.

Annie started to gasp. She clutched her throat.

Victoria knocked her to the floor. “I told you. No one gets out alive.”

Annie’s body shook, and she struggled for breath.

“Help her.” I stood and ran to Victoria’s side of the table. “What did you do?”

Victoria nudged Annie with her foot. “She’s no longer useful.”

“Annie, oh my God.” I didn’t know how to help her.

“One of you has to be a real doctor. Help her.”

The men remained in their seats, their expressions impassive.

Samuel responded, “She belongs to Victoria. It’s not our place to intervene.”

“What in the hell is wrong with you people?” I grabbed the water from the table and splashed it in Annie’s face. “Annie, no. Don’t. Fuck.” I held on to her hips and tried to hold her still, completely at a loss about how to help her. “You fucking bitch, how could you do this to her?” I snarled at Victoria.

Victoria cackled. “You honestly think you can take me on when you’re this distraught over street trash? Death is part of life, sweetheart, and only those willing to wield its power get to call the shots. The rest are what we call victims. That’s what you’ve always been, right, Elaine? A victim of Charles, Xavier, your father, and now of your own humanity. You’re pathetic,” she spat, disgust hardening the angles of her face.

I glared up at her from my knees. She wasn’t going to make it out of here alive.

Annie sputtered. White foam oozed from her mouth, reeking of chemicals and vomit.

The alarm sounded and Antonio hopped up from his chair. “What the hell?” We all looked up at the monitors to find a swat team advancing into the main room. Naked bodies scrambled, gathering clothes as officers in black uniforms moved strategically through the room.

Chairs slid against the floors, some toppling over, as the men stood and rushed toward the door. Victoria shoved back in her seat, slamming the chair against the wall behind her. As she tried to stand, I yanked her chair’s leg, causing her to stumble and fall back down. While she tried to balance herself, I snatched the knife she had sheathed on the belt of her robe. The same knife she used in all of her rituals. I clamped down on her arm, hindering her attempts to rise, and then crawled behind her on my knees. She leaned forward to get away, but I hooked my arm around her throat, trapping her. Her hand flew up and pried at my wrist. I sunk the razor-sharp blade into her bicep. She shrieked. When her other hand raised, I positioned the blade under her chin. “Keep trying, and it’ll be your throat I cut next.”

She yanked my wrist and I sliced the razor sharp blade over her forearm. When she raised her other arm I applied more force and cut deeper.

“I’ll keep cutting until there is nothing left but bones, if that’s what you want.”

“This is against the rules. They will kill you for this.”

I huffed. “Maybe you don’t understand. I don’t give a fuck about your rules.”

“Then what about Lydia? Charles? You’ll be responsible for sullying their line. Taking away any amount of credibility of their legacy. You’re damning them all, including Xavier.”

I tightened my grip on her throat. “But see, that’s what you really don’t understand. Without me, Lydia would have never achieved her legacy. This was her ultimate plan—to end you all, and she did it right under your nose. She exposed my father, protected Xavier, ended Charles, and made all of the events leading up to this moment possible.”

“That’s impossible. Lydia embraced us,” she scoffed. “Besides, she was too weak and obedient to pull it off.”

“No. She played you. She was the master of your game. She gave Charles the control and the blame, all while cutting one tiny thread at a time. She was the reason I ended up in your office that day. She gave the detective your card, referring me to you. She wanted you to know that your plan to have my father execute Charles’s subjects did not deter him. I was a message then; now I’m the deliverance.”

I raised the knife, slicing it across her cheek just like I had seen her do to the bound man in the playroom that first night.

“I’m going to let you choose, Victoria. Consider it a courtesy, us being council buddies and all. Do I kill you now and end your reign of terror? Do I wait until they get up here and hand you over, so you can spend the rest of your life in prison? Just like my father, waiting for the day when they march you down the hall to put that needle in your arm. You’ll have all that time to think about your legacy.”

“You don’t have anything on me. You can’t prove that Annie didn’t overdose.”

“You’re right. But my father left me a gift.”

“What in the hell are you talking about?”

She tried to shove me, dislodging my arm, but I slammed the knife into her leg. She screamed and fell back. I tightened my grip around her throat again.

“What was it you had him collect? A sample of each victim’s mark, a strand of hair and a photograph to ensure that everything had been carried out to your specifications.”

She stiffened.

“Oh yes… and a nice little video of his confession. He loved you enough to kill for you, but he loved me more, so much so that if you ever tried to hurt me, he made sure I had everything I needed to crush you. Except one thing… Those women you killed while training him, the ones they blamed on a copycat? This knife in my hand and my father’s video is all I need to connect them to you. How many people have seen you with your favorite knife?” I held the knife out twisting and turning it under the light. “I find it most satisfying to know that your ceremonious nonsense, the same bullshit the entire Society was built upon, will be the nail in your coffin.”

“Do it. Kill me.”

Sebastian barreled through the door. “Elaine, are you Ok?”

“Help Annie.”

He ran to her side. “What happened?”

“This bitch poisoned her.” My hands shook with rage.

She scratched and clutched my arm, trying to pull it away. I fisted my hand around her hair, yanking her head backward and made another slice down her cheek. “Settle the fuck down, or you’re going to bleed out.”

On the monitor, the door to the hallway opened. “Look at the monitor. I don’t want you to miss the best part.”

Two men entered, guns ready.

“Do it. Kill me. Do it, now!”

“Put down the knife,” one of the SWAT men shouted and trained his gun on me.

I dropped it.

“Hands in the air.”

I did as he commanded and released Victoria.

Another SWAT member entered the room and behind him, Detective Mancini.

“Elaine, are you all right?” Before he could take a step toward me, Victoria reached down and grabbed the knife.

The man holding the gun shouted. “Put it down, or I’ll shoot.”

Before any of us could react, Victoria sliced the knife across her throat. The knife clattered to the floor next to her falling body, a river of red flowing from the thin wound she’d created.

Sebastian yelled, “I’m a doctor. Let me help.”

Detective Mancini glanced back at the gunman. “Hold your fire. Go ahead, Dr. Corriveau.”

He pushed past me and knelt in front of Victoria’s still form, feeling for her pulse. He examined the gash in her throat and shouted, “Call the paramedics,” but Kirk was one step ahead.

Sebastian shrugged off his jacket and covered the wound, applying pressure. Glancing up at me, he whispered, “There’s nothing that can be done.”

Anger tore through me. She should not get such an easy out. The tightness in my chest and numbness that filled my limbs from the anxiety didn’t dull the rage.

Sebastian stood and moved out of the way for the paramedics. Staring at me, he reached up and removed my mask. He wrapped his arms around me. “I got word that Xavier’s press conference started ten minutes ago. It’s done. It’s over.”

I glanced down at Annie. “Is she…?”

“I’m sorry.”

Sobs racked my body. I killed her by asking her to be a part of this. I closed my eyes and gave in to the grief, melting into Sebastian’s embrace. Xavier had not been responsible for Samantha’s death, but Annie’s demise would always be my burden. Yet a strange feeling of relief overcame me, knowing Victoria had spared me any further guilt. I hoped that when I opened my eyes I could wish away my mistakes and banish this nightmare.