CHAPTER 15
Kaya hung her head over the sink in her quarters’ en suite bathroom and splashed a handful of cold water over her face. Her stomach heaved, threatening to revolt for the second time since she had returned with Aric and Mira from the Darkhaven in Pointe-Claire.
They’d been back at the command center for a couple of hours and she still couldn’t purge the horrific scene from her mind. The blood and death and hatred. The unimaginable cruelty of the ones who’d perpetrated the slaughter of that innocent family in their home.
But her stomach turned for another reason too.
One that put a coldness in her veins as she gathered her shower-damp hair into a long ponytail, then donned running gear and headed out of her room to the mansion corridor outside.
She had to get away from the confinement of the command center’s walls, if only for a short while. She needed space and time to process everything that had happened, not only today but ever since Aric showed up in Montreal.
More than anything, she needed to look for some clarity . . . no matter where that search might lead her.
Aric was coming out of a guest room at the other end of the hallway as she headed for the central staircase that led to the large foyer. He held a tablet in one hand, his comm unit in the other.
“Hey,” he said, his deep voice soothing with just that simple greeting. “I was on my way to check on you. Thought I’d head down to the war room to dig back into the reception images and look for Mercier’s Opus contact.”
“Oh. Right.” It seemed like a week had passed since they’d begun that task together. If only it felt so long since she’d lain naked and pleasured in Aric’s arms. She could hardly look at him now without reliving the bliss of his touch . . . and the erotic power of his body as he moved inside her. She cleared her throat. “I was, um, just going out for a little bit. After this morning, I could use a long run.”
“You want some company?”
“No.” She only hoped her reply didn’t sound as abrupt as it felt on her lips. “I won’t be gone long. If anyone asks for me, will you let them know I’ve gone out?”
“Sure.” He nodded. “When you get back, come down and join me. We need to nail this Opus bastard now more than ever.”
She wouldn’t deny the importance of excising a cancer like Opus Nostrum. If they had supplied the UV ammunition used in today’s slayings--and there seemed to be zero doubt about that--then the Order should show no mercy to anyone with ties to the terror group or their sympathizers. On that, she and Aric were agreed.
But it was the idea of teaming up with him again in close quarters that made a knot of reluctance form in her breast. It had been a mistake letting her guard down around him. An even bigger mistake making love with him, no matter how incredible it had been.
She couldn’t allow herself to make that mistake again. She needed to keep her head on straight. Stay focused on the things that mattered. If she had let her priorities slip since meeting Aric Chase, what she witnessed at the Darkhaven today had been a stark wakeup call.
And that meant keeping her distance from the Breed male as much as possible between now and the time that he would be returning to his life in D.C.
“Kaya.” He said her name softly, concern etched on his handsome face. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” She nodded. Forced all of her misgivings and regrets deep down in order to give him a casual shrug. “I’m fine. I’ll see you when I get back from my run.”
She stepped around him, feeling his gaze at her back as she jogged down the stairs and exited the mansion. Outside, the summer afternoon was bright and warm and clear. She soaked in every bit of it as she set off at a comfortable pace, through the command center’s main gate and out to the private road that descended from the peak of the broad, highly secured hill to the main street below.
Ordinarily, her route might have taken her around the base of the hill on Summit Circle. But today, instead of taking the familiar path, Kaya turned away from it and jogged in another direction. About half a mile down was a large boulevard that would eventually take her into the heart of Montreal. She followed the divided stretch of pavement for several blocks, until she spotted a taxi heading her way.
She signaled to the driver, glancing anxiously around her as the car slowed in front of her. “I need to go to Dorval, please.”
At his nod, she climbed in. Twenty minutes later, the driver had delivered her to a depressed section of the city southwest of Montreal’s downtown. The area hadn’t been a stellar place to be at any point in history, but during the wars that followed First Dawn, this patch of urban sprawl had become a magnet for gangs and rebels of all stripes. Now the ruins of old warehouses and factories long vacated stood drab and dilapidated on either side of the street. Panhandlers and addicts camped at nearly every intersection, including the one where Kaya instructed the taxi driver to drop her off.
“You sure you wanna be down here, miss?” The middle-aged man ran his palm over his grizzled jaw. “If you want me to wait for ya, in this section of town, I gotta add twenty bucks surcharge for every five minutes I risk my vehicle standing at the curb.”
Kaya shook her head as she handed him the fare for the drive. “I can find my own way back. Keep the change.”
He took her money and wasted no time pulling away after she got out of the car. Not that she could blame him. There were few people who chose to spend time in this area of the city. And usually, if they were lucky enough to get out, they made a point never to come back.
Kaya should know. She’d been one of them.
She walked up the street toward a rat hole bar with a sagging roof and a facade of weathered brown wood scarred with old gunshots and tagged with layers of painted gang graffiti. There was no signage on the door or visible from the street.
Then again, no one who belonged anywhere near this place needed to be told who owned it.
Those who didn’t belong were never given a chance to make the mistake twice.
Kaya counted herself in the latter camp, especially now that she had pledged herself to the Order. Nevertheless, she reached for the black iron latch on the door and pulled it open.
The place was empty and dank. It reeked of stale cigarette smoke and spilled liquor. In the light shining in from behind Kaya as she entered, she saw a dark-haired woman hunched over behind the bar with a mop and bucket.
“We ain’t open yet.”
The young woman’s weary voice held a rasp that made her sound as derelict and forsaken as her surroundings. Kaya disregarded the unwelcome greeting and walked inside anyway.
As the door thumped closed at her back, the woman behind the bar huffed out a curse and swung around with a scowl. “I said we ain’t--”
Her words cut short the instant her eyes met Kaya’s. Astonishment flashed in her gaze, followed by disbelief . . . then a cold, hard suspicion.
Kaya felt all of those things as she looked at her too.
She hadn’t seen this woman’s face in years, since she was sixteen.
But no, that wasn’t quite right.
She saw this face every time she looked in the mirror.
Her twin sister had aged considerably since then, her dark brown eyes narrowing on Kaya as if she were the enemy. And maybe she was.
“Hello, Leah.”
“What are you doing here?” No trace of warmth in that accusing question. Only mistrust. Animosity, even.
Kaya steeled herself to the twinge of hurt she felt at her sibling’s glower. “I need to talk to you.”
Leah glanced nervously over her shoulder, toward the swinging door that led to the back of the bar and the kitchen. She stayed right where she stood, with the bar between her and Kaya like an impenetrable wall. “We’ve had nothing to say to each other for the past four years. How the hell did you know where to find me?”
“I ran into someone who knows you--or did, anyway. His name was Jacob Portman. He was working security at the Rousseau-Mercier wedding.”
Leah’s glare morphed into a confused frown. “You spoke to Red?”
“We exchanged a few words,” Kaya replied, feeling no emotion for the human who had opened fire on Aric after attempting to attack her too.
She’d read his mind in those frantic moments and knew the hatred he had for Aric on sight, simply because he was Breed. She had registered his alliance to violent rebel gangs like the ones who frequented this bar, and the ones who’d carried out this morning’s slayings just a few miles here.
“Portman’s dead,” she told her sister. “I killed him.”
Leah gaped. “Are you insane? Red was one of Angus’s men from back in the day.”
“Well, now he can meet him in hell.”
“You’re crazy.” Her twin let out a sigh and gave a hard shake of her head. “You can’t be here, Kaya. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
“Why not? Do you have a reason to be afraid of me now?”
“Fuck you.” The response flew at Kaya like a slap to the face. She should have seen it coming. That was always her sister’s method for dealing with difficult conversations and hard choices. Lash out with cutting words and claws bared. “Why are you here? If you’re looking for some kind of teary, pathetic reunion, you can forget it.”
“No, that’s not what I was hoping for,” Kaya admitted quietly.
She’d all but given up on that idea a long time ago.
One of the last times they saw each other had been after their mother’s murder. The night sixteen-year-old Kaya had shot and killed the man responsible for her death, then fled into the city alone. She had run to the only person she knew and felt she could trust: her twin sister.
But Leah had problems of her own, even then. A runaway from the age of fourteen, she had turned out too much like their mother. Troubled. Addicted. Under the control of bad men. Heartless killers who spewed the same hate and lies the girls had been exposed to all their young lives.
Kaya had refused to stay for more than a handful of days. And Leah refused to leave. It was the last time they had seen each other. Until this very moment.
“I want you to know I’m with the Order now.”
Leah reeled back. “With them? What the hell does that mean?”
“I’m training with them here in Montreal, to become a warrior.”
Her sister gaped as if Kaya had just told her she intended to tear someone’s head off and drink from the stump of their neck. “I hope you didn’t come all the way down here just to tell me that.”
“No,” Kaya said. “I came to see if you know anything about a Breed family who were murdered this morning over in Pointe-Claire.”
Leah’s face was unreadable. “Why would I know anything about that?”
“Because whoever did it left quite a calling card. They broke into a Darkhaven and slaughtered the entire family--the parents and two little boys, one of them just an infant.”
Leah swallowed at that, the first reaction she gave that even hinted at emotion.
Kaya pressed on. “They savaged a young mother, Leah. Using her blood, they wrote awful things on the wall above her body. Things I used to hear quite a lot when our mother was alive. Things I heard from the people you call your friends--ignorant assholes like the one who owns this bar.”
Leah’s gaze flicked over her shoulder once more. She lowered her voice to a tight whisper. “If you’re trying to shock me by insinuating Angus or his men had something to do with a killing like that, save your breath. I know what he’s capable of.”
“And yet you stay with them. All this time, Leah, you’ve stayed.”
She didn’t respond, but a storm churned within the dark brown eyes that were so similar to Kaya’s own. There was torment in her gaze, but she refused to give it voice.
“If you know something about the attack on that Darkhaven, you need to tell me.”
Leah crossed her arms. “I don’t. But even if I did, talking to the Order is the last thing I would do.”
Kaya blew out a curse in frustration. “Don’t you care about what’s right or wrong? Doesn’t justice mean anything to you?”
“You have no idea what matters to me,” she shot back now, angry and defensive. “You never did. You were always the strong one, the smart one. Always whispering to me about your dreams and plans for your future, even when we were little kids. The only thing I ever wanted out of my fucked up life was to survive it.”
“At the end of the day, that’s all anyone wants,” Kaya replied.
She’d heard the pain in her sister’s voice. She understood it the way only a twin could, connected on a level that went deeper than basic siblings. But Leah wasn’t reaching out. She was pushing back, barring Kaya as if she were a stranger.
And maybe after all this time, that’s all they were to each other now.
Kaya recalibrated her feelings for her sister, resolved that she wasn’t talking to her twin but questioning a member of a hate group so tight-knit and steeped in doctrine it might as well be labeled a cult.
“Do they know you’re one of us too?” Leah’s question caught her off guard. It held a curious edge, but there was no mistaking the accusation in it, either. “Is that why they sent you here?”
“They didn’t send me. And I’m not one of you,” Kaya replied, but the denial lacked the venom she wanted it to have. “I haven’t been part of this world for a long time.”
Yet she’d been born into it, raised within it. For the first sixteen years of her life, all she’d known was the abhorrent, violent world that somehow still held her sister in its thrall. As much as she wanted to deny it, Kaya’s shame over that fact ran deep. It would likely never fade.
“Oh, my God,” Leah whispered, openly astonished. “They don’t know.”
Kaya felt her jaw clench. “Don’t try to make this about me. If you know anything about those killings today, I need you to tell me. Please, Leah. Whoever did it showed up prepared to take out any Breed male they came in contact with. The Order is investigating. It’s not going to take them long to come around here asking the same questions I am.”
Leah glanced away from her now, her mouth flattened in a hard line. She picked up a damp cloth and began scrubbing the scarred countertop of the bar. “This conversation is over. I want you leave now, Kaya.”
Instead of doing what she asked, Kaya stepped forward. “Have you ever heard Angus mention Opus Nostrum?”
Leah’s hand stilled. Her face paled a bit, blood draining from her cheeks and lips. At that same moment, a thump sounded from the back room of the tavern. Someone had just come in from the alley at the rear of the place. Kaya didn’t have to guess who it was.
“Shit,” Leah hissed. “Get out of here, Kaya. Don’t ever come back, do you understand? Angus will kill me if he sees me talking to you.”
“Then come with me.”
She blurted the offer before the thought had barely formed in her mind. But she meant it. Never mind everything that had passed between them four years ago or at any time before or after. Leah was her sister, her twin. She couldn’t walk away without trying to reach her, to appeal to any thread of humanity still remaining in her.
“I mean it, Leah. You can leave with me, right now. I promise you, the Order will keep you safe.”
“Shut up.” Leah gave a vigorous shake of her head, sending her dark brown hair sifting around her shoulders. “Shut up and get out, Kaya. I don’t want your help. I don’t want anything from you.”
More noise sounded from the other area of the bar. Then a voice as jagged and cold as gravel called out. “Raven! Goddamn it, woman. Where the fuck are you?”
When Leah flinched, Kaya reached for her hand. “Come with me before it’s too late.”
“Too late?” She scoffed, brittle and angry as she wrenched out of her loose grasp. “You have no idea what you’re saying. Now, get out of here.”
Pain stabbed her as she watched her sister withdraw. “If you refuse now, I may not be able to help you later.”
“Go, damn you!” Leah snapped in a harsh whisper. When Kaya’s feet refused to take the first step, Leah threw down her wash rag and finally circled the bar. “Get out of here. Before I call him up here to make sure you never come back.”
Kaya’s gaze snagged on the subtle fullness of her sister’s belly. She sucked in her breath and it sounded more like a sob than a gasp. “You’re pregnant. Oh, God . . . Leah. Please tell me it doesn’t belong to Angus.”
But her sister gave her no such reassurance. Her unblinking gaze stayed fixed on Kaya, bleak and hard. Her face was shuttered, inscrutable. Unknowable, even though it was a mirror reflection of Kaya’s own features.
“Leah, please--”
“Angus! I’m out here.”
Her shout broke Kaya’s heart. She backed up a couple of paces, edging toward the door as the clomp of heavy boots vibrated in the floorboards. Her sister turned away as Kaya reached the tavern door.
The last thing she saw of Leah was her stiffened spine before Kaya pivoted and bolted out to the street to make her escape.