“Well, aren’t you two cozy.” Greta’s voice woke me, and I jumped from the bed, realizing it was the first night I hadn’t had a nightmare about my dad in nearly two weeks.
“Ha, ha, couldn’t resist. I have breakfast.” She rolled a cart towards us.
After the meal, the doctor drew blood and did the lab tests for kidney function. All of Camille’s vitals looked good, so we fixed the bracelets to her wrist and ankle again. Greta hooked her up to a blood bag and connected the lines to draw out the poisoned blood.
The doctor checked all the lines and measured her vitals by hand. “Can never be too careful with automation. I’m guessing by your hair and eyes we pulled half the metals from your system yesterday. Hopefully we can get the rest today.”
As the day went on, Camille’s hair continued to lighten, and her eyes returned to the brilliant green I remembered. The process drained her physically, and I hated seeing her so weak.
“Stop worrying,” she told me as I set her lunch tray on the table.
“I’m not worried.”
“You are. You’re getting wrinkles on your forehead.”
“I’m not getting wrinkles.” I stood and checked my reflection in the glass.
“You’ll be an old man soon. Don’t fret, this is working.” She squeezed my hand.
“I’m the one who’s supposed to be pepping you up.”
“You should get a workout in.”
Even with Janine there, I hated leaving Camille. But my body and powers needed to be stronger. I bent down to speak to Janine.
She put her hand up. “I know the drill, go.”
“Thanks.” I jogged out the door. I didn’t plan on being gone long, but I needed to contact Marcus. Finding Orm, we walked to the communications room. All our calls were re-routed so they couldn’t be traced. Even though Hunter and Alena had given me the green light to contact Marcus, I still needed to run it by Anne. Since we hadn’t briefed her on my desire to rescue Dad, the conversation started with an explanation of the goal and plan to use Marcus to get Dad a message.
“It could be as simple as Gabrielle’s rescue.” I finished my pitch.
Anne tapped a pen on her desk. “Do we even know that your father wants out? What if he is on their side? He’s been branded. We can’t trust him.”
“I had the brand removed. He can too.”
“If he wants it removed.”
“Grady told me my Dad probably joined them to help me.”
“I’m not sure how far we can push Marcus’s goodwill. We may need him for other projects.”
“All he has to do is tell my dad when and where to meet us.”
After Orm explained there was a possibility my dad could be helpful in deciphering the prophecy, she approved my request to speak with Marcus as well as use their resources.
Since Orm was more familiar with Marcus, he made the call. After he’d sent Anne’s greetings and discussed Gabrielle’s wellbeing, he handed me the phone. Marcus agreed to speak with my dad once the plan had been formalized. With a renewed sense of purpose, I made my way to the gym and ran a fast three miles on the treadmill.
Showering quickly, I shot back to the infirmary.
“Look!” Camille picked up a strand of her hair as I entered the room. “It’s all blond again. Look at my wrist.” She turned over her arm. Where the blood vessels were stained black, they had returned to their normal state. “My ankle looks normal too.” She lifted a foot.
“This is great!” I hugged her.
The doctor hung a new blood bag on the IV pole. “We’re going give her one more pint to make sure her system is clear.”
“Go get Alena and Hunter,” Camille instructed. “I want to try some magic.”
Tyler pointed at her. “Remember, it’s a muscle. Maybe you want to take it easy for a day or so.”
“No, I want everyone here.”
“Okay, I’ll go get everyone.” He jogged out the door.
I sat beside Camille. “This is the best day we’ve had in a long time.”
“California was great,” she reminded me.
“That seems like a lifetime ago.”
Her hand wrapped around mine. “Now we can start planning how to rescue your dad.”
“You’re on strategy, not on the extraction team, remember?”
“If I get my magic back, I can help.” She turned my face, forcing me to look into her eyes.
I blinked to clear my thoughts. “I told you. You’re not getting anywhere near that castle. Alena is coming on the boat, and you and Hunter are staying here.”
“I thought Alena needed Hunter as a guide. Isn’t that how you found the shore?”
“Maybe Hunter can be on point, but you’re staying here.”
“But I could help.” Her voice rose as she spoke.
“If you come, then I’d be worried about you.”
“What about leaving our me unguarded?”
“There’ll be plenty of people here with you.” I almost added she’d have her magic back, but didn’t want to give her false hope. We had no idea if her powers would return.
I heard her voice in my head. You’re shifting your eyes. What aren’t you saying?
“You have your magic.” I wanted to pick her up and spin her around. I took her hands and pushed a message to her. I love you.
Seems almost too easy.
After six chelation tries and two days of draining your blood?
Well, if you don’t count that.
“What’s going on? You guys just going to sit there staring at each other?” Tyler’s voice came from behind me.
As I stood, Camille lifted her arms and a breeze started.
“You got your magic back.” Alena hopped to Camille’s side and hugged her. “We’re going to have a party, with cake and everything. I’m going to tell the kitchen. She grabbed Hunter’s hand, and they ran from the room.
Over the next hour, Camille hosted a parade of visitors, all lined up to congratulate her. Alena’s party decree set off a chain event, and the day became a holiday.
“I think the full moon helped pull the toxins from her cells,” Alena asserted over dessert.
“Could be,” Orm agreed.
“Wait.” I checked my watch. “It’s the twenty-sixth? That means there are only five days till Imbolc.”
“I wonder who Theron roped into being his goddess?” Hunter rolled his eyes.
I set my fork down, ready to start planning Dad’s rescue. “I have to get to work.”
A hand grabbed my arm. “Stay.” Camille’s eyes pleaded with me. “Can you leave it till tomorrow? One night of no missions?”
Exhaling a breath, I released the tension building in my chest. “Of course, sorry. Now it’s your turn to reel me in.”
“Finish your cake.” She held the plate out to me.
Returning to my seat, I tried to stay focused on Camille and her joy.
“I’m going to Italy with you,” Camille insisted the next day as we discussed strategies.
“She’s right. The trinity must stay as close together as possible,” Hunter confirmed.
“Fine. To Italy, but you’re staying in the safe house.”
“I don’t think any of them should be going on this mission,” Tyler asserted.
Hunter stood and rubbed his hands down his pants. “Alena might be the only one able to get you back to the shore.”
“And I need Hunter as a beacon.” Alena wrapped her arm through his.
We planned to use three boats as we had with Gabrielle’s extraction. Dimitri, Aaron, Grady, Tyler, Alena, and I would be on the lead boat and stage the rescue attempt. After we’d hashed out the details, I put a call into Marcus. He agreed to get a message to my dad the next evening when he traveled to the castle for the Saturday night meal.
“Will you be at the Imbolc celebration with Michael’s coven?” I asked.
“No, Theron has chosen a bride from another coven.”
Hunter crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t you mean someone has chosen for him?”
“I am not privy to Michael’s coven’s political strategies. I know that the coven that agreed to send a maiden has sold their souls.”
“So, is there bad blood between your coven and Michael’s?” Alena asked.
“Not openly. Nothing has ever been said, but they didn’t try to take another girl from my coven.”
“Why would they give up?” Hunter questioned and paced to the wall.
“It’s probably easier to manipulate a smaller, weaker coven,” Alena put in.
Marcus cleared his throat. “Speculation gets us nowhere. This isn’t any of my business anymore. I will call you on Sunday with your father’s response.”
We ended the conference call and made travel arrangements. Anne procured another safe house that we would use as a staging location. Although the original compound had been destroyed, the location with the boats stayed secure.
“Are you okay with going back to Italy?” I asked Camille when we’d taken our seats on the plane.
“We could be in Italy right now for all we know.”
“True.”
“Are you worried about your dad? How is he going to go against the coven and agree to come with you?”
“He isn’t.” From what I understood, it’d be physically impossible for my dad to leave the compound if he’d been told to stay. I planned to take a couple of different sedatives to get him to the boat. All I needed was for him to be outside the compound on the shore side. The message Marcus would deliver would only tell him to be on the western lawn the night of Imbolc to receive an important message for Michael’s coven. I counted on Dad’s curiosity and Marcus’s persuasiveness and prayed they would lead to the outcome I wanted.
We made our preparations, and the night of Imbolc arrived. I hated leaving Camille, but she had Orm, Chalondra, and twenty vampire guards at the safe house. In addition, her connection with Hunter and Alena would enable her to keep tabs on our progress.
After nightfall, we drove to the boat house, loaded our gear and set out, leaving Hunter with five vampires on the shore.
“The weather looks good,” Alena commented as we set our course.
I glanced at the stars above. “Let’s pray it holds. Sardinia in winter is like the Bermuda Triangle. I think we only saw the sun one day in a month.”
“God’s speed, I say.” Dimitri moved the throttle, accelerating the boat over the waves.
I’d taught Grady and Tyler to use the ropes, and we laid out our gear on the deck. I’d be lead, and they’d use my lines to ascend the cliff below the castle, followed by Dimitri and Aaron if needed. Nearing the island, we tested our communications gear. We anchored the boat off the shore and lowered the dingy to the water line. Hoisting the ropes to my shoulders, I jumped down to the vessel.
Alena’s head twisted up towards the castle and she threw one leg over the side of the boat.
I pointed at her from below. “You’re not coming,”
“Yes, I am. It’s here.”
Grady grasped her arm. “What do you mean, it’s here?”
“Get your hands off me. The sword. It’s here.” Alena started to jump to the dingy.
Tyler grabbed her other arm. “That is even more reason why you should stay behind.”
Alena’s eyes shifted between Tyler and Grady. “They’re using the sword. I can sense it. We have to stop whatever they’re doing.”
“We don’t have the manpower for—” I started, but Alena slipped from Tyler’s grip and jumped over my head, landing behind me.
I spun to face her. I caught the shimmer of a blade two seconds before she pinned my arm to my back. The cold steel of the knife pressed into my windpipe. “I need to get the lance.”
Grady landed in front of me. “Alena. You know the sword draws you. Camille got captured, and you nearly were too because of the sword’s pull. Think rationally. We’re coming back for the sword when you, Camille, and Hunter can get it together.”
“Alena, you can’t go up there,” Tyler yelled from above. “It’s not safe.”
I rolled my eyes, thinking that was the last thing he needed to say.
Bending my arm to my shoulder blades, she pulled me to the back of the dingy. “You don’t tell me what to do,” Alena hissed at them. “I need to go to the sword.”
Glad I packed well, I slid my hand in my pants pocket. I wriggled the cap off the syringe barrel and plunged the needle into her thigh.
“Ahh!” she screamed before she dropped.
“Glad she didn’t know I had those sedatives.” I spun around and scooped her up.
“What did you give her?” Tyler yelled.
“Just a sedative.” I took slow steps to the larger boat and lifted Alena into Dimitri’s arms. Jumping to the deck, I set three more syringes beside her. “Someone has to stay with her. As soon as she starts to rouse, give her another. We’ll have to pray there’s enough to keep her down.”
Dimitri shook his head. “Alena is not going to be happy with you when she wakes.”
“You saw her. She wasn’t going to back down. We’re wasting time. Let’s go.”
Dimitri, Aaron, and Grady climbed into the dingy behind me. We’d planned the landing for low tide and jumped out of the boat onto the sand once we reached the shore. Looking up the cliff, I secured the harness around my waist. “I’ll lay lines, and you come up after me,” I instructed.
Dimitri laid a hand on my shoulder. “What if it’s a trap? You’re a herald, and Miss Camille will kill me if I let anything happen to you.”
“You know how to get up the cliff?”
“We’re vampires. We can scale this without the use of ropes. Let us go first.”
“Fine. Signal with a whistle if you need me to come up.” I dug in my pocket and offered him a set of syringes. “The red ones are sedatives, green for adrenaline.”
Dimitri slid the doses in his vest pocket. “If we’re not back in fifteen minutes, leave us.”
The two vampires started their ascent. They moved faster than I thought a being could on the wet stone face, and within a minute, the darkness took them.
“I don’t like this,” I told Grady.
“I agree with them. We can’t afford to lose you.”
Every thirty seconds or so, I turned my wrist over to check my watch. Five, then ten, minutes passed.
“I’m going up.” I put one foot on the rock.
Grady put a hand on my shoulder. “No, you’re not. Give them time.”
Within a minute, my eyes made out two forms descending the cliff. In another thirty seconds, Dimitri and Aaron landed beside us on the sand.
“What happened? Where’s my dad?”
“All we got is this.” Dimitri held up a cloth bag. “It was tied to a tree near the cliff. There’s a note inside from your dad. Doesn’t make any sense to me, but I figure it’s meant for you.”
Reaching inside the black velvet bag, I pulled out a plastic bag with a paper sealed inside.
“We need to get out of here,” Grady insisted.
“I came to get my dad. Not some love poem.” I waved the page in the air.
Dimitri shoved the sheet into my chest. “It’s not happening. You need to let it go. He left this for you. That’s what he wants you to have. We’re leaving.”
Too mad to focus on the words on the page, I shoved it back in the bag. I sat on the dingy, sulking till we got to the boat. With a giant leap, I jumped onto the deck. Passing Alena’s body, I reached into my pocket. I produced the adrenaline syringe and tossed it to Tyler.
“You should probably wake her up.”
Tyler uncapped the syringe. “You brought these for her, didn’t you?”
“Or anyone who needed them. You know we couldn’t let her go up there.”
Tyler pulled the top from the needle. “Camille is not going to like that you drugged Alena.”
“Alena is safe. That’s what’s important.”
“I’d hate to be you when she wakes up.”
“I did what needed to be done.” I walked towards the bridge.
Alena would be mad, but I didn’t care. She’d gotten out of control and had to be managed. That was why I didn’t like Alena. Her emotions got the best of her. What bothered me more was that I knew Camille was susceptible to the same weakness and guessed Hunter might be too. We needed a third herald, one for each of the trinity. I guessed a suitable stand-in like Grady would do, if that person was up to the task.
In the control room, I peered into the darkness as the boat sailed over the waves. As it got later and the temperature dropped, the fog began to form.
“Are we going to be okay?”
“All the instruments are working.” The captain tapped the display.
I kept my eyes on the control panel, trying to focus on anything but my failed mission. Why hadn’t Dad been outside? Why would he stay with them? Did he have a tracker or something that Michael’s coven could use as a beacon? I rubbed the soft velvet bag in my pocket. I wasn’t ready to read the letter yet.
A device on the control panel beeped, and two green dots appeared on the radar.
“What is that?”
“We’ve got company.”
Peering into the fog behind us, I made out two small glowing circles. “They’re coming in fast.” Gripping the counter, I balanced my weight as the boat accelerated.
“What’s going on?” Alena entered the bridge. “And you”—she poked her finger into my chest—“I can’t believe you drugged me.”
“I did what had to be done. We have company. Let’s get out there and figure out how to throw them off course.”
Grazing past her, I made my way to the back of the boat. Alena, Tyler, and Grady joined me. The glowing spots in the fog seemed to grow bigger as we watched.
I turned to Alena. “What about a wall of water?”
“A wall of water might suck us in. Let’s try some wind. It will produce high surf on its own.”
We each raised our hands and pushed on the suspended air molecules, driving them away from our boat. I planted my feet as the craft accelerated. The spots of light grew smaller until we couldn’t see them.
Then, the roar of the engine died, and we tumbled to the rail.
I ran to the bridge. “What happened?”
“This is what happened last time. They must have sent out some sort of spell to disable any moving craft,” Alena guessed.
“Or any electronic device.” The captain flipped switches and pushed buttons, but the power to all the instruments was gone.
Looking back, I saw the orbs of light growing larger. “I think it’s time for that wave now.”
“We don’t know where we’re going,” the captain insisted.
I looked to Alena. “Do you see anything?”
Her eyes trained across the glass. “There, she pointed. Take my hands.” She held them out to Tyler and me. “Get all three boats lined up beside each other. Produce a wave, and I’ll direct it.”
“I don’t see anything,” Tyler argued.
“No one but me saw anything last time.”
“What do you see?”
“A white form, like last time, although this time it’s flying.”
I yelled over the sound of the surf. “Does it matter? We need that wave, Tyler. They’re closing in fast.”
“Right.” Tyler closed his eyes, and I copied.
Feeling the boat move forward, I intensified my efforts.
“It’s working,” Alena said.
“Guys we need more speed,” Grady insisted.
“Come help us.” I looked over my shoulder to see a wave about six feet high in our wake.
As Grady joined us, the wave rose, and the boat accelerated. Behind us a wall of water blocked sight of the oncoming crafts.
“You still see your magic guide?” I asked Alena.
“Yes, I am keeping the wave rolling in his direction.”
“Him?” Tyler questioned.
“It’s Hunter, I think, but he has wings. Maybe Hunter’s spirit?” She shouted over the wind.
I wanted them to focus and bumped Alena’s arm. “Does it matter?”
The lights on the dash flicked, and the engine whirred.
“Guys,” the captain called. “I think we’re good. You can release the wave.”
Dropping Alena’s hand, I rested against the cabinet behind me. With my anger like a hard pit in my chest, all I wanted was to be alone. But I couldn’t check out until we were safe at our base. Camille’s image flashed in my brain, and I longed for her embrace, anything to erase the rage building inside me.
“Jude,” Alena yelled.
“What?” I stood up.
“Go outside with Dimitri and Aaron to watch for oncoming vessels.”
“Got it.”
Having something to do distracted me from the page sitting in my pocket. We watched the fog roll past as the boat glided over the water, but there was no further sign of pursuers. Hearing the captain call for land, we stood ready to deboard. Finally, the wharf came into view along with Hunter and the vampire guards. I jumped to the pier and secured the back rope around a wooden post.
Hunter helped me tighten the knot. “How did it go?”
“We were followed. Let’s get to the vehicles fast.” The sound of a plane caught my attention. “Hear that?” I turned to Dimitri.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dimitri yelled to the group, and we started running to the vehicles.
“Cloaking spell,” I called as I shut the door to the SUV.
We locked hands.
“What if they have thermal equipment?” Tyler asked.
“We’ve got enough witch power in this vehicle to erase any trace,” Grady insisted. “Focus.”
Hunter instructed the driver to take us to an alternate safe house in case we were followed. I hated that I wouldn’t see Camille that night, but at least there would be no chance that we led them back to her.
Focusing on the cloaking spell helped distract me from the failed mission. But as soon as the vehicle stopped in the garage my mind switched gears. I exited the vehicle and grabbed my bag from the trunk.
“What happened? Where’s your dad?” Hunter trailed me into the house.
“Give him a minute.” Dimitri tossed a can of blood at me as I collapsed into a chair. “Food, then talk.”
We sat around the table, the vampire species chugging human blood, and witches downing Orm’s special energy concoction.
“Are we safe?” Hunter’s eyes trained around the table.
“I don’t believe we were followed,” the tech guy named Alfonzo answered. “They lost us when we cloaked.”
“Is there a guarantee?” I asked.
“Nothing’s one hundred percent. I’ll go help monitor all the scans.” Alfonzo dropped his can into the recycling bin and left the room.
“I’m glad we had a backup location,” Grady noted.
“We won’t be able to use that approach again, thanks to Jude’s failed extract-dad mission.” Alena shook her head.
I jumped up, sending my chair flying to the wall behind me. “We wouldn’t have been able to use it anyway.” I paced to the other side of the room. “We knew there was risk. That’s why we separated you, Hunter, and Camille.”
“What does the note say?” Dimitri asked.
I pulled the sheet from my pocket and unfolded the page, spreading it on the wood table.
“What language is that?” Hunter leaned over the paper.
“It’s Greek, my dad taught me this poem when I was four.”