Chapter 20
Gage
"She has to be somewhere, damn it!" I yell, tossing shit around the room as Dice flinches.
"Have you checked with Drackus?"
Drackus. That motherfucker won't be of any damn use. I don't even bother answering Dice's rhetorical question.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I almost rip the damn seam open to pull it out.
"Yeah?" I rush out, not recognizing the number.
"Meet me in twenty minutes. I know something you're going to want to know," my mother says, making me hiss and growl in one breath.
Not who I wanted to speak to.
"What's this about?"
"Alyssa. Meet me in twenty minutes at the corner grove behind Pine Shore."
"I'll be there in five. You be there, too."
I hang up, and Dice walks over to me, hands on hips like a pissed off woman.
"If you think you're leaving me behind, you're sadly mistaken."
I smirk, shrugging a little. "Go to sleep," I mutter, stifling a grin when he falls to the floor, snoring before he claps the ground.
I grab my keys, and then say to hell with driving. That's not too far. I can vaporize.
My body dissembles and melds with the particles of the air as I split the planes, traveling too fast to be more than a glimpse of a shadow to the mortal eye. My feet hit the ground, I stand up and straighten my jacket, and then I start looking around for the bitch who had better tell me where my girl is.
"Looking for someone?" she asks from behind, bringing my attention to her.
I turn around before saying, "Where is she?"
She smiles and shrugs. "I was hoping you'd have the answer to that. It seems she stole her night stalker from prison after I worked so hard to put him in there."
She broke him out? Fuck. They're together? I can't fucking save her if she doesn't stop running from me.
Wait. What?
"You're the reason he was found out?" I ask, stunned. This bitch knows too much.
Her ominous grin quirks up as she plays with a strand of her hair. "It's so sad, really. You had the potential to be something so great. You always were a disappointment. I served her up on a silver platter for you, and yet you still couldn't play your part. Even gave you Aphrodite's spell. Pathetic, really. Only a true fuck-up can fuck up this bad."
What the hell kind of crazy is she on right now?
"What—"
My words are cut off as a bag is jerked over my head, and a spell binds me, turning me as stiff as a board. I can only struggle internally because my body can't move—I'm paralyzed, damn it.
I try to curse her, say anything, but the spell they've used has muted me. I start chanting inside my head, desperate to break free, but I'm met by darkness before the first line can be said.
Being chained up and as cold as a human in the winter isn't pleasant, but at least I'm alive.
"’Bout time you woke up," an impossibly familiar voice says, chilling me to my core.
I look up, squinting against the darkness. When I finally see him, my breath leaves my lungs in a gasp. I scramble backwards until I slam into the wall, shaking my head in disbelief, as I stare at the blond-haired ghost.
I'm dead. Oh fuck. I'm dead and in a different plane.
"You're not dead," he says, seeming to read my mind as the chains rattle around his wrists. He rests his head back against the cold stone as he licks a drop of blood from his lip. "And neither am I."
It takes me a second to even attempt to speak, but when I do, it's hoarse and strained. "I saw you. Bound, shredded, and... and... fucking dead! How—-"
"You saw a changer who looked exactly like me, smelled exactly like me, and even dressed in my clothes. These people are good. They are both genius and stupid. They left behind something as a way to crush all doubt that it might not be me, but it's what they've been looking for."
He lets out a low chuckle, either delirious or amused—I'm not sure. Quite frankly, I'm questioning my damn sanity right now.
"Why—"
"There are things you don't know, Gage. Things about me, about who I am, about what I can do. Ever wonder why I'm so fucking strong? Well, not everyone overlooked it. I should have kept my secret better. Apparently Alyssa and Kane exposed themselves as well. They know everything."
What does he mean about Kane's secret? "They know about Alyssa? You know about Alyssa?"
"I do now. I've overheard chatter through the pipes when I strain real damn hard. The ring leader found out several years ago when a night stalker fed from Alyssa's veins. He lived. Her blood gave him so much strength, and the high he was on almost carried him over the edge. It's also how they figured out about Kane. Because he never hit such a high—he was too strong to be driven to that side of madness."
Kane. Why does he keep mentioning that fucking night stalker?
"What about Kane?" I finally ask, trying to get him to stop hinting and just blurt out whatever it is he has to say.
"You should be more worried about why you're in here."
I swallow hard, still trying to fully grasp the fact that he's here, alive, in front of my fucking face.
"Why am I here?"
He turns to me, letting his sad smile slip free before his jaded words fall out with a heavy blow. "Because someone fucked up, underestimated our little creature goddess. She fucked their plans up real damn good. They can't use me because she'd never believe it's really me. They need you there as a distraction—when they try to kill her again."