Aria

“I cannot believe you took off like that!”

“Not now, William,” Aria replied as she stepped off the bottom step, through the doorway, and into the safe house. The walls pressing against her made her almost turn around and flee back outside.

“You should have waited. You shouldn’t have gone at all!”

Aria spun on him. “I said not now!”

Her brother gave her a ‘huh?’ look, and took a step back as Max and Xavier stepped off the stairs behind her. Max held himself rigidly, his jaw clenched as he stared at William. Blood still splattered the bottom of Xavier’s and Max’s pants, but there had been no help for it as they’d kept them on throughout…

Aria abruptly cut off the memory of what had occurred.

“What happened?” William inquired, his tone much softer than it had been.

“We can discuss it later,” Aria replied and forced one foot in front of the other down the hall.

She froze at the entrance to the main room. At least a hundred and fifty faces turned in her direction. All of them looked tired and frightened, but she also saw the hope blooming in their eyes as smiles curved their mouths. A few of the children released delighted cries and clapped their hands together.

“They’ve returned!” a young boy, no older than five, said as he bounced on his mother’s lap.

“There’s so many,” she whispered.

“They’ve brought word that our troop numbers have grown rapidly. We’re over twenty-five hundred now,” William replied.

Tears burned Aria’s eyes. The memory of what she’d witnessed today, what she’d condoned would forever be burned into her mind, but staring at everyone gathered within, she knew they’d done the right thing.

After a few hours, they’d finally gotten the vampire to spill what he knew; they had answers to many of the questions they’d sought, and one big possible weakness. They’d done something terrible to get those answers, but they were better prepared to defend those surrounding them now.

She would do what she’d done today again if it meant protecting these innocents. This time, when the first one took a step toward her, she welcomed it as each of their touches was a reminder of why she stood here and of who would really suffer if they lost this battle to Sabine.

She’d be dead, her misery over with if Sabine won, but the vampires wouldn’t kill off their human food supply. No, what they would do to the humans would be far worse.

***

Max

Max kept his hands clasped before him as he stared at the numerous scars marking them. His neck had started to ache an hour ago from his forward, hunched over position, but he didn’t dare move. What had happened in that cave had triggered memories he’d been trying to bury since he’d escaped his vampire captor, Katrina.

But now the memories were there again, teasing at his mind. Screams echoed in his head, but they weren’t the screams of the vamp from today. They were his own. The fangs sinking into his flesh over and over again, burying deep into the same places until his skin was so raw he felt as if it had been flayed from his body. Katrina’s cruel laughter echoed in his ears as she ran her fingers over his bare flesh while he remained tied up and helpless to resist anything she did to him.

Breathe.

Sometimes, when the memories came to him, he forgot to breathe. He would find himself gasping for the air he’d unconsciously denied his lungs while waves of loathing for the vampires and himself swamped him. What had been done to him hadn’t been his fault, he’d always known that, but knowing it didn’t always make it any better. He’d physically responded to Katrina, his body reacting on its own even as he cursed himself and she laughed.

She’d always laughed too. Every time, she had laughed while destroying him one more small piece at a time. Plans of escaping her had been all that kept him going. Of escaping, rescuing Aria, and taking her far away. She’d always been Daniel’s kid sister to him, but he’d started to look at her differently before their capture.

Aria had grown to become a very pretty woman, but she’d been a scrawny teen. However, she had more spirit than anyone he knew, and he admired the strength of her love for her family and her rebellious nature. When she’d sacrificed herself to save John from the vampires, he hadn’t been able to let her go to the palace alone. He’d been convinced he could free her.

How incredibly wrong he’d been. If it hadn’t been for Jack rescuing them, he would be dead by now. Sometimes he wondered if he would have been better off never being saved as parts of him already felt dead.

Once they’d been set free and were no longer at the palace, he’d seen Aria as someone who could understand what he’d endured. He’d clung to the hope that her understanding would somehow be his salvation. No matter how often she’d told him her time as a blood slave hadn’t been the same as his, he didn’t believe her. He’d believed she couldn’t admit what had been done to her while she was imprisoned, that she’d been warped to have feelings for the vampire who had claimed her as his, but he’d been wrong.

He’d been livid with her afterward; she’d betrayed him and all of her loved ones for a monster. A monster who had loved her more than Max had ever seen anyone love another, a monster who had fought alongside all of them to bring freedom to humans. Somewhere along the way, Max had stopped seeing Braith as a monster and Aria as a traitor. He’d started seeing the good and bad in vampires as well as the good and bad in humans. He’d started to heal.

And now that healing was falling apart around him. Braith, the monster who had become his friend, was dead. Aria was barely holding herself together. The freedom they’d attained was fracturing around them, and his memories had been set free by a vampire who had deserved everything he’d gotten today, probably more.

He kept that thought firmly in mind as he finally lifted his head to look at those surrounding him. Most of the humans had retreated to bed hours ago, leaving only him and his friends behind. The flame from a lantern behind William’s shoulder caused his hair to shine like blood. Max turned his head away as images of his own blood streaming down from his wrists, tied above his head, filled his mind.

Closing his eyes against the memory, he rubbed at his wrists before rising to his feet and walking over to the jugs of wine stashed on another table.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Daniel asked in a low voice as Max poured himself a large glass of wine.

“Yes, I do,” he said as he drank all the dark liquid he’d just poured before refilling the glass. The wine was bitter on his tongue, but it warmed him all the way down. He looked to Aria and tipped the glass in a questioning gesture.

She nibbled at her lip. “No, I can’t.”

Lifting her glasses, she briefly revealed her blood-colored eyes as she rubbed at them before settling the glasses back into place. William glanced questioningly between Max and Aria before turning to watch while Xavier paced the room. Tempest sat in his lap, her gaze also focused on Xavier as he turned and walked back to the other side of the room.

“What happened out there?” William inquired.

“We found where they are right now,” Aria replied.

“Did you learn anything?” Timber asked.

“Yes,” Aria said.

Max drank down the rest of his wine and scowled at his wrist when his sleeve fell back to reveal his scars; the ever-present reminder of Katrina. She was dead, but he would forever bear her marks. Whatever Hell she was in now, he knew she was laughing over that knowledge. He poured himself another glass despite Daniel’s disapproving look. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to get sloshed, but he really couldn’t think of a more appropriate one.

Daniel, Timber, and William exchanged looks but no one prodded him further. Aria’s nails dug into her thighs as she gazed at him. Xavier stopped pacing to stare at Daniel for a minute before resuming his stalking movements.

Lord help Daniel tonight, Max thought and couldn’t stop himself from chuckling as he drank the wine and poured himself another glass. At least the wine made Katrina’s laughter in his head die down some.

“Is it helpful information?” Daniel prodded.

“It’s helpful,” Max replied.

“Well…?” William inquired.

“It is Sabine,” Aria confirmed, drawing all of their attention to her. “Whether she did die and rose again or not, we don’t know, but that is the woman’s name. I’m sure there have been many Sabine’s over the years, but judging by her vast amount of power and her looks, she has to be Atticus’s mother.”

“You’re sure that’s her name?” William inquired.

In his head, Max could hear them repeatedly asking the vamp for the woman’s name. In the beginning, the vamp had claimed not to know it. Then he’d claimed he’d never reveal it. In the end, he had sobbed Sabine’s name repeatedly. Never once had they suggested the name to him before he confessed it on his own.

“We’re sure,” Max replied when Aria remained silent, probably recalling the man’s cries too. “She has about ten to fifteen thousand troops.” The vamp had told them twelve thousand. They’d agreed he was most likely exaggerating, but it was better to be safe than sorry. “Right now, they’re divided into three different towns until they’re ready to go after the palace. She has some of her followers traveling in smaller groups, circulating through areas and acting as scouts who report back to her. She moves often, sometimes in extremely large groups, sometimes in smaller groups as she always deviates her patterns. We were lucky she was in a smaller group the night they discovered us.”

“There’s easily ten thousand within the palace walls right now. If Melinda was able to evacuate the border towns before Sabine got to them, there will be more,” Daniel said.

“Including those we are gathering, our numbers are about equal with hers,” Xavier said. “Our source could have been lying about their numbers, most likely was, but it will be close.”

“You have a source?” Tempest asked.

“We did,” Aria confirmed. “He no longer lives.”

Max drank another glass.

“She’ll be ready for the palace soon,” Daniel said.

“She’s moving on the palace within the week,” Aria replied.

“Your source told you this?” William asked.

“No, he said they wouldn’t be moving until next week. We believe he lied.”

“Won’t she seek out more followers first?” Tempest asked.

“Arrogance is one of her biggest weaknesses,” Aria murmured. “I think she believes she can turn some of those within the palace to her side.”

“She may be able to,” Xavier said as he stopped his pacing. “Fear is a powerful motivator.”

“Are we going to warn them?” William asked.

“We’ll figure out a way to do so,” Aria said.

“Should we bring our troops in sooner than planned?” Timber inquired.

“No,” Aria replied. “The palace is going to have to defend itself for a few days if she moves before we’re ready. The Council will be able to keep it together for a few days, especially if they have the better position and the walls to defend from. It will also take time to bring Jack here.”

Blood spilled from Aria’s palms as her fingers tore into her flesh with those words. It dripped onto her pants, but she didn’t notice it and no one commented.

“I don’t think we can get Jack here before she marches on the palace. There simply isn’t enough time,” Aria continued. “When he does get here, we’ll send the runners to the safe houses to start gathering our troops.”

“We will return for Jack tomorrow,” Daniel said. “If all goes well, it will only take us a day to get there.”

“Yes,” Aria said.

“Did you learn anything else?” William inquired.

“Goran may be her other big weakness,” Max said. Their informant had let that one spill in order to keep his other eye. “They’re rarely apart.”

“Is that it?” Timber asked.

“It’s more than we had before,” Aria said defensively as more blood fell onto her pants. “And we also learned that Goran is her son.”

A pin dropping would have been heard from a mile away. The chair Timber had been leaning back in hit the floor to finally break the silence. “You’re kidding!” Timber blurted.

“No,” Aria said. “I’m not sure when he was born, it must have been while she was in hiding, but he is her son.”

“Judging by the power I sensed in him, I would say he is younger than Braith and Jack, but not by much,” Xavier said.

“Holy…” Timber’s words trailed off. “This just gets more and more messed up.”

“Yes,” Xavier said. “She has also been in this country for at least five hundred years, possibly longer.”

“How do you know that?” Daniel inquired, his face paler than normal.

“Our informant told us she is Croatoan,” Xavier answered.

“What the hell is Croatoan?” William demanded.

“Croatoan was once associated with a colony of humans who came to settle this land in the fifteen hundreds. They disappeared, but left the word croatoan behind. Many believed the settlers were trying to say that they’d gone to live with the Native American tribe in the area, also of the same name, but they were never sure. Our informant told us Sabine was responsible for those settler’s disappearances and deaths. Why the settlers called her this, I don’t know, perhaps they believed she was one of the Native Americans. Sabine has been responsible for many mass disappearances over the years that have gone unsolved.”

“And after seeing her parade of humans in the woods, I think we know what she does with those people,” Aria said.

Max placed his glass down and walked over to her. She tried to jerk away when he clasped her hands, but he kept a firm hold on them as he lifted them and uncurled her fingers from where they’d torn her flesh back on her palms. Her forehead furrowed at the blood flowing from the large gashes, and he realized she hadn’t known what she was doing.

Daniel rose and entered the room the humans had left open for Aria to sleep in. He returned with a towel and handed it to Max who wrapped it around her hands. The cuts would heal quickly, but he didn’t want her to get any more blood on her pants.

“Are you going to tell us what happened out there?” Daniel inquired.

“There are some things that can never be unheard,” Aria murmured.

“No,” Max said.

She tugged on her hands again, and this time, Max released them to her before returning for his glass of wine. He stared at the wall as Xavier resumed his pacing.

“Would you please get him out of here? His pacing is driving me nuts,” Aria said to Daniel.

“Not leaving you,” Xavier said flatly.

“I’ll be fine. There are plenty of guards, and I know you’ll stay close. I need a moment of stillness.”

Xavier went completely still, but the tension radiating from him made him feel like a bomb about ready to explode as sweat beaded across his forehead and trickled down his temple.

“Xavier, please go,” she said. He made a disgruntled sound before turning on his heel and stalking over to the door. He opened it and walked into the hallway. Aria turned toward Daniel. “I don’t think he should be alone right now.”

Daniel rose to his feet. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Daniel bent to kiss the top of her head. “I don’t know what happened out there, but you did good, you all did. This is all useful information.”

Before she could respond, he turned and followed Xavier into the hall. “You two can have the room,” Aria said to William. “I won’t be sleeping tonight.”

“I’ll stay up with you,” William offered.

“No, rest. You look tired.”

“Someone took off and left me behind to worry about them.”

The corner of Aria’s mouth quirked into the faintest hint of a smile. She removed the towel from her hands and set it in her lap. “Serves you right for taking off after Kane.”

“At least I said good-bye.”

“Only because I stopped you before you could leave town.”

“I didn’t take two others with me.”

“Only because you insisted upon going alone. Go, get some rest.”

William hesitated, but when he glanced down at Tempest, Max knew he had lost the battle before he rose to his feet and walked out of the room with her cradled against his chest. Max filled two glasses of wine and returned to his seat.

“You know,” Timber said quietly, “ugliness is a way of the world. You have to accept that, but it’s when you let the ugliness eat at you until it makes you ugly too, that you truly lose a piece of yourself.”

Aria’s mouth parted as she turned toward him, but before she could respond, Timber’s chin fell onto his chest and he released a loud snore. “How does he do that?” she asked in awe.

Max stretched his legs out before him. “I wish I knew.”

Aria stared at him with her head tilted to the side. “Today made you think of your time with her again, didn’t it?”

He knew she’d avoided saying the name to try to spare him some distress, but there was none to be spared, not tonight. “With Katrina, yes.”

Aria’s mouth pursed, a muscle in her jaw twitched. “If she hadn’t already been put to death, I’d kill her again for you.”

Max smiled as he stared into his glass of wine. “I know you would.”

“You never talk of what happened there. Would you like to now? I’ll listen to anything you’re willing to tell me.”

“There are some things that can never be unheard,” he reminded her.

She removed her glasses to reveal her reddened eyes and set them in her lap. “I think we’ve all gone beyond the point of being sheltered in our lives.”

“Then why not tell them what we did today?”

“Because it’s not necessary for them to know. They shouldn’t have to carry that burden too.”

“And hearing my horror stories are necessary to know?” He couldn’t keep the sharp edge from his tone.

“I think it would be better if you let it all out instead of continuing to keep it in, you know, like that whole ugliness thing Timber said.”

“And when are you going to let it all out?” he inquired. “Your eyes have yet to go back to their normal color.”

“That’s entirely different and you know it. I’m a dead woman walking without Braith,” she reminded him. “I’m barely keeping it going until all of this is over. You’re twenty-three years old and you have your whole life ahead of you. You deserve love and happiness, more than the rest of us probably.”

“Not true,” he said.

“You sacrificed yourself and became a blood slave because of me. What was done to you should never have been done to another. You deserve some peace, and I will do anything I can to help you find it.”

“You sacrificed yourself and became a blood slave because of John. If not for Braith, your experience would have been as bad as mine, if not more so. I am happy now.” At her raised eyebrow and disbelieving look, he continued. “Happier than I’ve been in a long time. Well, before everything went to shit anyway. I was healing. I’d found my place at Daniel’s side, helping him to rule and make decisions with The Council. I may not have been in charge, but I was still doing good, for all of us, and I enjoyed it.”

“And how do you feel after today?”

“Today broke me again a little,” he admitted. “But I’ll figure out how to put myself back together. I did before.”

“I can help with that, or I can try to anyway.”

“Sometimes, just sitting with someone helps.”

“Like when we used to sit together and fish without speaking?”

He smiled at the memory of those early days after they’d both been freed. They’d been such somber days, but the two of them sitting together had helped. “Yes, like that.”

“I can do that.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like some wine?”

“I’d like nothing more than to be drunk right now, but I’m afraid if I let my guard down even a little, I’ll snap. I might even eat you.”

“I would have accepted no for an answer.”

She gave him a small smile as she leaned back in the chair, her reddened eyes surveying him. He missed their crystalline blue color, and he missed her full smile, the one that lit her face and radiated her joy. They didn’t speak for half an hour before he rose to his feet and poured himself two more glasses of wine.

Walking over, he sat in the chair across from her once more. “Do you remember when we were younger and used to play hide and seek in the caves?” he asked.

“I do,” she replied.

“How about the time William put a snake in your blanket?”

Her gaze flicked toward the closed door William and Tempest had gone through. “I’d forgotten about that. I never should have given him my room tonight.”

Max laughed and took a sip of wine. “What about the time you dove off the waterfall?”

“And my pants came off?”

“That’s the time.”

“I’d never been more embarrassed in my life, and all you guys did was point and laugh as my pants were swept downstream.”

“You were so mad.”

“You would have been mad too. The water was freezing.”

He smiled at the memory of Aria, sopping wet as she stomped her way out of the river after reclaiming her pants. “You didn’t speak to any of us for the rest of the day.”

“But you all brought me flowers the next day and said you were sorry.”

“None of us ever liked it when you were mad at us.”

“I know,” she said. “It was always the same way when one of you were mad at me. You weren’t as easily bought off with a bouquet though.”

“You always brought us a new fur.”

“I did.”

He thought he saw a flash of blue in her eyes, but it was gone before he could be sure. He’d once believed he was in love with her; he now knew he’d been lost and looking for someone to care for him when he’d never felt more dirty and unlovable in his life. The thing was, Aria had always loved him, just as he would always love her.

“I’m not ready to lose you,” he said honestly.

Her eyes darted toward the door to the hall, her fingers fidgeting in her lap. “I’m not ready to lose any of you, but without Braith—”

“I understand,” he interrupted. “No explanations. I don’t think either of us need to hear what we’ve experienced and are experiencing. I think we both know.”

Her gaze came back to him. Tears glistened briefly in her eyes before she wiped them away. “You’re right. Those kind of revelations aren’t necessary.”

He sipped at his wine, but he found that this time he far preferred talking with her to the silence. He didn’t know if he would ever get this chance with her again. “Remember when we all covered ourselves in mud along the riverbank and jumped out of it to scare your father?”

This time Aria actually did give a real laugh; it was short, but it was there. “Not even as a vampire have I ever run as fast as I did when he chased after us.”

“Neither have I,” he admitted.