I’M IN THE library, scrounging up anything and everything I can find about Light and Dark history, when Niko rushes in, his hair a mess of black waves over his forehead and his chin speckled with stubble. This is the least put together I’ve ever seen him, even when his power was diminished. Even when I woke up in his arms after a night of crying hysterically. His eyes are bloodshot and wild with agitation, yet his blue irises are sparked with ire.
“House meeting, Gabs. Now! Grab Morgan and meet me in the great room.”
I close the book and stand slowly, careful not to make any sudden movements that may irritate him any more. “Niko, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“Just do what I said, will you? Shit!” Then he’s gone.
I grab Morgan from her room and lead her to the great room where Dorian, Alexander and Niko are already gathered. We all sit down, giving Niko the floor.
“They have Cyrus,” he deadpans.
“What?” Dorian is on his feet, fists balled at his sides.
“Stavros, he has him. And if I know our father like I think I do, Cyrus won’t be alive for long.”
“But isn’t he your cousin?” I ask, my too-high voice verging on dog tone. “How could he kill his family?”
Niko shakes his head. “He no longer sees him as family. Cyrus is a vampire now. The minute he lost his power, he became no more than a servant in my father’s eyes.”
“Bullshit,” Dorian spits. “We have to get him back. We have to find him. Now!”
“Easier said than done, old friend,” Alex says gravely. “I know better than anyone how difficult it is to escape.”
“So what do we do? We just can’t leave him,” Niko asks, desperation in his voice. He pulls at his hair, growling out his frustration. I can see that he’s in pain.
“Niko,” I whisper, going to his side. “We’ll find him. Alive.”
I don’t even think about what I’m doing, not when his agony is so palpable. I wrap him in my arms, squeezing him to my body. His hands are limp at his sides for several seconds until I feel them slide around my back.
This feels so right…yet so wrong. Niko is my friend, and he’s hurting. He just needs to be comforted. And while I know that Dorian may share a similar pain, something in my heart aches for Niko. He needs this. I need this.
“We should discuss strategy,” Dorian bites out gruffly. I let my arms fall to my sides and step away, feeling three sets of eyes burning into me. Niko gives me a quick flash of a half grin and turns back to the group.
“Alright. Let’s do this.”
THE GUYS BREAK out blueprints of the Dark palace that Niko had stashed away in his study. They work tirelessly for hours, sketching out plans, rehearsing strategies and going over countless scenarios. Feeling helpless, I enlist Morgan to help me make some sandwiches and coffee.
“Aren’t you afraid?” she asks, slathering a slice of bread with Dijon mustard.
“Of what?”
“Of them going to Greece? Of them damn near committing suicide by embarking on some crazy rescue mission?”
She throws the piece of bread on the counter, and I gingerly pick it up, topping it with shaved ham. “Of course, I am,” I whisper, refusing to meet her eyes. It’ll only make it harder to fight back the tears. “I’m terrified. I wish to God—to the Divine—that they wouldn’t go, but I can’t ask them to sit back and do nothing. Cyrus is a good guy. He helped rescue me when I was attacked and nearly raped. He saved my father’s life. He’s Dorian’s family. And in some way, that makes him like my family too.”
“But he’s a vampire, right? He can’t be killed.”
I shake my head. “We can all be killed. We just can’t die from natural causes. And even if we were invincible, I still couldn’t ask Dorian to step aside and send his brother and friend into the danger zone. I couldn’t live with myself if it meant imminent death for the people I love.”
“You love them?” I can hear the underlying accusation in Morgan’s voice.
“Alexander is my father, Morgan. You know that. Of course, part of me loves him, even though I haven’t had a chance to really get to know him. You know, with people dying and disappearing all around me.” I slap cheese and lettuce on the pile of ham, and nearly pulverize a slice of bread on top of that.
“And Niko?”
“What about him?”
“You care for him. You love him too. I can see it when he’s around. You get all…weird and squirmy.”
“I am not weird and squirmy around him!” I scoff. “Yes, I have a certain level of love and respect for Niko, but I am in love with Dorian. You know that. Shit, the whole world knows that.”
“Ok, Gabs,” Morgan concedes, holding her palms up in surrender. “I’m just saying…”
“Well, don’t say, ok?” I snap, turning my attention back to prepping ham and turkey sandwiches on rye.
What the hell is Morgan’s problem? She knows good and damn well that I’m loyal to Dorian. Shit, she knew I couldn’t shake him from my system while we were apart, no matter how hard I tried. Dorian had become my addiction. Loving him was my disease. And there was no coming back from that. I could never, ever shake the habit.
We resume making lunch in silence until we have enough sandwiches to feed a small army. The guys are more than thankful for the sustenance, although it does nothing to quell the bloodthirsty gleam in their eyes.
“Find anything?” I ask, grabbing a sandwich and sitting on the couch. Dorian shakes his head without looking up from the map he’s studying.
“There are ways to get in, but getting out will be problematic. Even if one of us were to cause a diversion, there’s a slim chance we would all make it out alive.”
“So take me,” I find myself saying before I can fully think it through. “Let me help. Maybe I can do that freezey thing and get us all to safety.”
“That freezey thing?” he asks amusingly.
“You know what I mean. Come on, four heads are better than three. Let me help.”
All three Warlocks answer at the same time, completely refusing my offer.
“No way in hell.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Oh, hell no, baby girl.”
Dorian looks up and gives me a soft smile to cushion the rejection. “I appreciate your bravery, little girl—I truly do. But I won’t risk one hair on that gorgeous head on yours.”
I finish my sandwich without another word, trying to hide my protruding lip behind slices of smoked turkey and gouda. They’re still treating me like a helpless child. I could help them! I could finally prove that all this pain and suffering was not in vain. And so what if Stavros captured me? I would blast my way out of there.
Morgan scoots beside me, offering me a chip from her bag. Translation: I’m sorry for what I said earlier, and I’m sorry that your feelings are hurt now. Here. Drown your sorrows in greasy trans fats dipped in salt.
Just as I pop the chip into my mouth, pain seizes my skull, filling my head with unbelievable pressure. It feels like my brain will explode any second, and bleed out my ears into a goopy, bloody mess. I cry out, but soon realize that I’m not alone in my agony. Dorian, Niko and Alexander are all writhing on the floor while grasping their heads. They feel it too. And although it feels like someone pounding my skull with a jackhammer, I can tell that they’re in a great deal more pain than me.
Unable to verbalize what’s happening to me, I reach out to get to Morgan and she clutches my hand. “What’s going on? Gabs, what’s wrong?”
“My…head,” I manage to croak. “Hurts…so…bad.”
“Fuck!” Niko grits out. “Stavros…” It’s all he can manage to say before he screams in sheer torture. I drop to my knees and use every bit of my might to crawl to where he twists in pain.
“Summoning us…” Dorian rasps beside his brother. He holds out a trembling hand towards me. “Hold…on.”
I force myself to turn to Morgan, the only person in the room exempt from the strange phenomena. “Morgan!” I scream. “Help! Hold…onto…them.”
Understanding, she launches herself over Alex’s body, using her own body weight to hold him to the ground. Then she reaches her hand out to us, urging us to take it.
My fingers just barely touch hers before it all goes black and still.
I WAKE UP face down with wet sand lodged in my mouth and nose, coughing and spitting out clumps of dirt. My hair is a matted mess on my face, and my clothes are damp. Pushing myself up on shaky arms, I look out into the darkness.
“Dorian?” I call, pushing out my hearing, hoping to detect any noise at all. “Hello? Niko? Morgan? Alex? Where are you guys?”
“I’m here,” a voice croaks. It’s not until Dorian coughs with a painful groan that I recognize who it is.
I begin to crawl towards the direction of his voice when I hear Niko bite out a curse a few feet away from me. I scurry to his side as he sits up, brushing sand from his face and hair.
“Un-fucking-real,” he mutters.
“What the hell happened?”
Niko sucks his teeth, grimacing. “Stavros. That’s what happened.”
“Stavros?” The word comes out as a broken whisper. “How? Where are Alex and Morgan?”
“Didn’t make it.”
“Didn’t make it?!” I’m suddenly on my feet, my fists hot as coal at my sides.
“No, no, baby girl,” Niko says holding up his palms. “Calm down. They didn’t make it here.”
“And where’s here?” I already know the answer. I just need to hear it out loud.
“Skiathos,” Dorian says from behind us.
I rush into his arms, nearly knocking him back to the ground. “How the hell…? How did we get here?”
Niko stands, still brushing wet sand from his clothing. “We were summoned.”
“Summoned?” I ask, frowning. “That was being summoned? Feeling like someone is squeezing your brain like it’s a damn grape? I thought you said no one knew where your house was? You said we’d be safe!”
“He doesn’t know. He summoned us by tapping into our Dark magic. Which is why Morgan was not affected. It’s extremely difficult and draining on your power, so I didn’t expect him to try it.”
Stavros can pluck us up out of thin air anytime he feels like it? Shit. Were we ever really safe?
“It seems as if Morgan acted as shield over Alex’s body,” Dorian adds. “It weakened his connection, which is why they were spared.”
“Interesting,” Niko muses. “We’ll have to test that little theory later. But for now, we need to figure out what the hell we’re doing here.”
I shake my head, feeling granules of sand trickle from the tips of my hair. “I don’t get it. How did this happen? Why would he come after us?”
Dorian slips his hand and mine, turning to the western end of the beach where golden light illuminates a small house affixed on a rocky cliff. “Guess we should go ask him.”