Chapter Fourteen
Ethan made his way down the wide staircase. The conference was taking place in a stately home, which had been hired for the purpose, no doubt through a whole hoard of intermediaries that could never be traced back to the Conclave. A huge house, with extensive walled grounds. Armed guards patrolled the perimeter and manned the electronic gates. Every precaution had been taken.
He’d left Sadie in her room, which connected to his. She said she was going to take a bath. He wished he was with her now, but he’d been called to a meeting. Apparently, Travis had arrived, and his father wanted him present. Which was good—he wanted to see Travis.
While he had no real need of Travis now that Sadie had found her friends, he still had questions, a whole load of questions. Starting with, what had Travis been hiding from.
After that, all that remained was to get through this party and finally discover the truth as to what had happened to his mother and then…
Then what? Did he go on with his original plan, which had always been to take control? Run the Conclave as he’d been born to. That was the only way he’d known he could get access to the past, discover the truth, find those responsible for his mother’s death. Now, he no longer needed to stay. Sadie would find the truth for him. After that—could he just walk away? Leave them to their plotting and their plans and their manipulations. Of course, they would come after him. No one left the Conclave, and they were even more ruthless against their own kind. But then, perhaps Sadie’s lot would take them down. Destroy them all. Him included.
So perhaps he should stay, help protect them against the Tribe. Take over the power…rule the world. After all, what did he care who controlled the fucking world? Was the Conclave really any worse than the governments, the corrupt politicians?
A guard stood outside the door, but nodded to him and opened it without a word. He stepped inside and found himself in an old-fashioned library, with floor-to-ceiling bookcases and the smell of old paper and leather bindings filling the air.
His father and Travis stood across the room, talking together.
Travis was his cousin, but four years older than Ethan. Growing up, he’d never had much to do with him. He’d always thought he was a bit of a dickhead.
Now, seeing the two men together, he could recognize the family resemblance, both tall and lean, dark haired, gray eyed. Both dressed in tuxedos, ready for the party. Both with glasses in their hands, and both with the glint of silver at their ears, which showed they were wearing the reflector devices. That would be a problem, but he’d face it later. They turned as he approached, and he studied Travis. His cousin appeared at ease. But like Ethan, he’d grown up inside the Conclave and had learned at an early age to hide what he was thinking.
“Drink?” his father asked.
He gave a nod and waited while his dad poured scotch into a glass. He took the proffered drink and followed his father across the room to where two dark brown leather sofas faced each other. His father and Travis sat on one, he sank down across from them and sipped at his drink.
“So you made it back?” he said.
“Of course,” Travis replied. The annual conference was compulsory. No excuses.
“Travis is going to brief us on the project,” his father said. “Then we can make a decision on where to go next. Though I have to be honest—” He fiddled with the device at his ear. “My vote would be to shut it down. Destroy them all.”
Ethan didn’t think that would be an option. The majority of the Tribe were hardly under Travis’s control. And so far, they’d failed to bring them in. All they had were four hostages, and he suspected that by the end of the night, they wouldn’t have those, either.
He watched Travis, interested as to how he would react. His cousin shifted on his seat, and Ethan realized that however relaxed he appeared, he was on edge. “The project is no danger to us. I plan on winding it down. What do you need to know?”
“Everything?”
“Why? That’s not normal protocol.”
“Let’s just say, I’m interested. And I will want the closed files.”
Travis turned his attention to Ethan. “Has the woman spoken?”
Ethan shook his head. “She knows nothing. Merely a pawn being used by others.”
Travis put his drink down and stood up, shoving his hands in his pockets. “We got involved about five years ago. One of our assets, a General Webber, got wind of an ongoing government project that he thought we might be interested in. A group of powerful telepaths were being used successfully in interrogations. I arranged for the man in charge—a Colonel Harry Winters—to be recruited.”
“The missing asset?” Ethan said.
“Yes, he disappeared about six months ago. Presumed dead.”
“Presumed by whom?” his father asked. “This should have been flagged.”
“I didn’t think it important.”
That shouldn’t have mattered. Travis should have followed protocols. And there was some reason he hadn’t, a reason he wasn’t happy to share. He’d get to that later.
“So this group,” Ethan said. “Where did they come from?”
“An organization called the Rayleigh Corporation. They were the result of genetic experiments using DNA from a…tribe discovered in Africa over a hundred years ago. It wasn’t originally known but they were actually telepathic. They were also long-lived.”
“How long-lived?”
“No one knows for sure. But it’s thought that members of the original group are still alive.”
“You don’t know?”
“We haven’t been able to locate them. They were under the control of a Martin Rayleigh. He was recruited by the colonel. But that was a mistake. Rayleigh is…” Travis gave a small shrug. “An honorable man. He didn’t agree with the direction we were going with the group—”
“And what direction were you going?”
“We were carrying out various experiments, mainly to see if we could make them more…manageable. A few deaths occurred. When Rayleigh discovered this, he somehow managed to spirit the original group away, and we’ve not been able to find them since.”
“And Rayleigh?”
“He’s in our custody, but he’s not talking.”
“What happened to the government project? Where are those people now?”
“They’d been told the deaths were from natural causes. After the last one…died, they learned that wasn’t the case.”
Had there been a slight hesitation there. “Who was he, and how did he die?”
A flicker of annoyance crossed Travis’s face. “Is that relevant?”
“I’m curious.”
“We were trying to take out the human element. It was believed that if we could hook up the brain directly to a computer, we would have more control. The subject was a seventeen-year-old boy.”
Jesus.
“They discovered it, destroyed the experiment, and broke out. That was about nine months ago. The colonel was hunting them down, but there wasn’t a trace of them for three months. Finally, we got an anonymous tip as to where they were. We managed to reacquire four of them. We were hoping to use them as leverage to bring in the rest but things went a little astray.”
“Astray?”
“They kidnapped the colonel’s daughter. After that, we lost control of him.”
“His daughter. Is she connected to us?” his father asked.
“Only unknowingly.” Travis leaned forward in his seat, his face animated. “Christa Winters is a renowned geneticist. She was heading up the research on the longevity issue, and she was almost there, on the brink of a breakthrough.”
“What sort of breakthrough?”
“Splicing DNA from the test subjects and introducing it to existing DNA. We were on the point of discovering the secret of immortality.”
“And…?”
“Someone destroyed her laboratory and all her research.”
“Shit. And this was something else you didn’t think to mention.”
Ethan could hear the anger in his father’s tone—he was making no effort to hide it.
“I had it under control.”
“Of course you fucking didn’t have it under control.”
Travis winced at the fury in his father’s voice, but didn’t respond. There wasn’t a lot more he could say. Why had Travis kept quiet? It went against all the protocols. What else was he hiding? The fact was that if he had spoken up, chances were the whole thing would have been closed down, the hostages killed. Why hadn’t he wanted that? Or was there something else? Was it tied to the research? Was Travis hoping to restart the longevity research once things had quieted down? He could see the lure of that.
“So where is Christa Winters now?” he asked.
“Missing.”
His father shook his head. “No doubt presumed dead, like her father.”
Travis ignored the comment. “I decided the leak came from General Webber. He was dead by this point.”
“You had him eliminated?”
Travis ran his hands through his hair. “No. Someone else had him killed.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Presumably, the same person who had sent the anonymous tip. But why? Would Sadie know? He was guessing, yes. But would she tell him? Unlike him, her loyalty to her people was absolute.
“They weren’t coming after us,” Travis continued. “The Conclave was not compromised. I swear it. It was as though they were trying to wipe out all traces of the project. There were other related deaths—nothing to do with us.” He came back and sank down on the sofa. “I decided that my safest course of action was to put the project on lockdown and get myself out of the arena until everything quieted down.”
“You still have the hostages?”
“Yes.”
His father rose to his feet. “The party starts in half an hour. We’ll leave it for now. But this is not over.”
“No, sir.” Travis wiped his hands down his pants. He was nervous. With good reason. But Ethan suspected there was more to it than he was revealing. Something had affected him on a personal level.
But what?
…
Sadie really liked this dress. She’d never been a dress person before, but she looked good. She’d also never really thought much about her appearance before. All the Tribe were pretty similar—so it was hard to think of herself as something special. But tonight, she looked…beautiful. She wasn’t wearing any jewelry—in fact, all she was wearing other than the dress was a black lace thong. She peered at her back in the mirror. On her left shoulder blade was a tattoo of a T intertwined with bloodred roses. They all had them. Jake had started it after a drunken night out with Quinn, their second-in-command, and they’d all followed suit.
Her room was stunning. The party was taking place in a manor house, about an hour’s drive north of London. With its own huge, landscaped grounds, it was private and discreet, and the perfect place for a clandestine meeting of the most powerful secret organization in the world. If she peered out the window, she could make out armed guards patrolling the grounds. She counted five that she could see, but was sure there would be others. Reaching out with her mind, she caught a glimpse of Rose, right at the periphery of her reach. She would hear if Sadie called.
She hadn’t expected Rose to be here. She’d thought Jake would need her if he was going to attack the facility with the others. But maybe he thought her need was greater. It was a comfort to know Rose was close.
People had been arriving constantly. She couldn’t shift the idea she was in the lion’s den surrounded by lions.
She glanced up as a rap sounded on the connecting door, and a second later, it opened and Ethan appeared, looking seriously fuckable in his black tux. She allowed her gaze to drop down over his body, the broad shoulders, lean hips.
“If you continue to look at me like that, we’ll be late for the party.” He returned her gaze, and her nipples peaked under the thin material of the dress. Totally obvious. That could be potentially embarrassing.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured, his voice husky with desire.
She forced her own gaze upward and saw the glint of silver at his ear.
At that moment, she wanted in his head, almost more than she wanted his body.
Wanted to know what he was thinking. What he planned. His hopes and his dreams and… Would he let her in if she asked nicely?
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Sit down,” he said. “We need to talk.”
Of course they did. He needed to tell her exactly what it was he wanted from her, though, she could make a good guess.
All the same, she sank down onto the stool in front of the dresser and waited while he sat on the bed opposite her. He looked tired. She wanted to smooth away the line between his eyes. “Why don’t you let me see what it is you want for myself?” When he didn’t say anything, she continued, “You know it makes sense. At this party, if you can let me know who is who, it will help. And the easiest way to do that is to let me read you.”
He stared at her for a minute longer, and then he slowly raised his hand, slipped the reflector device from his head, and shoved it into his jacket pocket.
For a moment, she hesitated, almost scared of what she might discover. Then she stretched out her mind, slipped inside.
He wanted her. That was at the forefront of his thoughts. He wished he could forget the party, forget what he planned to do, take her to bed, and lose himself in her body. Never surface again.
“You want me,” she murmured.
“Hell, I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you dressed as a hooker outside Forrester’s house. This goes way beyond want.”
He was right, but now wasn’t the time to get into that. Maybe there would never be a time. She delved a little deeper. “You’ve seen Travis?”
“Just now with my father. He gave more questions than answers, though.” He looked her in the eye. “Six months ago, one of our assets was assassinated. A General Webber. Do you know who was responsible for Webber’s death?” He shook his head. “Of course you do. But I’m guessing you’re not going to tell me.”
“I can’t. But it makes no difference. Doesn’t change things.”
“I don’t need to know. Is that it? Because you’re going to kill me anyway when this is all over.”
He was wondering if this was the end. Whether he’d been a fool to trust her, whether her friends were even now planning on attacking them here, destroying them all. After hundreds of years, had he single-handedly brought an end to the Conclave? And beneath that thought, maybe the slightest hint that, subconsciously, that might have been his plan all along.
And did he really want to know the truth about his mother, when it might rock the very foundations of his existence?
But he’d come too far to turn back now. This had been the very basis of his coming home all those years ago. Because it was his one chance of getting to the truth about what had happened to his mother. An accident or final proof that the Conclave was ultimately irredeemable.
“Tell me,” she murmured. “Not with words. Bring it to the forefront of your mind. Let me see what you want, what you need.”
His mother. Vivian Weiland. She saw an image of a beautiful woman, with a thin face, her son’s golden eyes, and a mane of dark red hair. She was laughing, but her eyes held a reserve, a sadness.
Ethan had loved his mother. Deeply. When he’d reached an age to understand these things, he’d seen her as the one good person in his life. Pure. Maybe too good to survive the Conclave.
Sadie followed the thread deeper. As she’d suspected, he wanted her to find out the truth behind his mother’s death. If there was, in fact, an alternative truth to the one he knew. That she’d died in a riding accident, when he was eighteen. His mother had been five months pregnant. And not entirely happy. Even he’d been able to see that. Had that unhappiness led her to do something, question something…? The Conclave looked after their own, and Vivien had been born and bred within the Conclave. Her marriage to Ethan’s father had been a joining of the two most powerful dynasties. But despite that, from his memories, she hadn’t been an active member. She’d seemed content to look after her family, though, she’d never truly been happy. And she’d always been there for him. But while the Conclave looked after their own, their deepest creeds were loyalty, secrecy, ultimate commitment. And they dealt ruthlessly with anyone who deviated from the path.
He’d always doubted.
Accidents didn’t happen in the Conclave. Nothing happened without a reason. Before her death, his mother had been distracted by something. Worried, uncommunicative. Then she’d died. She felt an echo of Ethan’s total despair. Her death had nearly broken him. It had stretched the loyalty he felt to the Conclave until it was tight and ready to snap. He hadn’t trusted himself not to question her death and knew that would likely result in his own. And he didn’t want to die, not until he’d learned the truth. And so, he’d run.
But he’d eventually come back. Because the answers were here.
She reached out a hand to him, then let it drop to her side. “I’ll find out for you. If you really want to know.”
“I have to know.”
No, he didn’t have to. Some things were best left alone. But she gave a nod. “What happens now? Do you have some sort of business meeting where you all tell each other whatever nefarious little plots you’ve been hatching over the past year?”
He smiled. “No, we don’t discuss business tonight. This is more of a tradition set into the original protocols of the organization. To show who we are, our solidarity. Our commitment to the Conclave. The Conclave relies on secrecy, but ultimately, we, the founding membership, need to know who and what we are. That’s what tonight is about.”
“More ritual than actual doing anything?”
“I suppose.”
“You don’t do anything weird…like pledge your commitment in blood or human sacrifice or…”
He laughed and she was glad. He’d been way too serious for a minute there. But this was serious stuff.
“Nothing like that. You’ll probably be disappointed and bored.”
“Oh, I think there will be enough in peoples’ heads to keep me entertained. I’m guessing there’s some wicked evil deeds lurking in a few of your friends’ brains.”
He frowned a little. “Is this some sort of test?” he asked. “Will you use what you discover tonight to make a decision on whether you believe the Conclave should survive or be destroyed?”
She hadn’t actually thought about it in those terms. Would she? If she went into their minds, found them all steeped in evil, would she seek to destroy them? Would she urge the Tribe to go after them? Kane would be happy. One thing she did know, this man Travis had to die. He was directly responsible for so many deaths.
“You’re thinking too much,” Ethan murmured.
“I was thinking I want your friend Travis dead. Other than that…” She gave a shrug. “I honestly don’t know. Let’s get through this evening and worry about the future tomorrow.” There was another reason for that. By tomorrow, they would know about Kaitlin and the others, know whether Jake had gotten them out successfully. She knew he planned to go in tonight, but no more than that. No doubt she’d hear, as soon as there was something concrete to know.
“Good idea,” he said. “But I think you know that this thing between us will not be over.”
“This thing?”
“I’m guessing you don’t do relationships any more than I do. But there’s something between us.”
She had a flashback to making love to him. To whispering the words. Could she risk that? She’d promised herself she would never care for anyone again. But was she ready to let him go? “That’s another problem for tomorrow.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then gave a brief nod and got to his feet, holding out a hand to her. But as she made to rise, something rippled on the edge of her mind, like a tear in reality. An image flashed up in her head, so vivid that for a second, her surroundings faded, and it was as though she was inside the scene. She saw a ballroom filled with bodies strewn over the floor in their finery. A scarlet dress caught her eye and she zoned in. Were they dead? She couldn’t tell. Then the image was gone, and she blinked open her eyes.