Darkness Awakened (13 page)

“It doesn’t matter what they want. It’s happening. And it’s a good plan. One he’s been working on for years. If your daughter hadn’t run away from you we would have bagged her at your place. Oh yes, we’ve known where you were for the past couple weeks.” Disdain dripped from his every word.

Lyra masked her surprise. She’d been careful about keeping her whereabouts private from anyone from her past life. Her daughter didn’t have any social media accounts either. They were both so cautious, Lyra had no idea how he’d found them.

“When she ran from you, it screwed up his plans. Claudius had to hire shifters to take her.” He sounded disgusted by the very thought.

Before Lyra could respond, Finn moved lightning fast, ripping the vamp from Gabriel’s hand. He threw him against the nearest wall so hard a crack split right up the middle of it. Before the vamp had moved, Finn was in front of him, pinning him up against the cracked plaster. Bits of it dusted his shoulders and hair. “Give us the exact location or you’ll be begging for Justus’s form of punishment rather than mine.”

Lyra heard none of the man in his voice, only the wolf, and though she couldn’t see Finn’s face, the vampire must have believed him because he started shaking. He whispered something so low even Lyra couldn’t hear.

Finn dropped him then looked at one of his remaining warriors. “Keep him alive in case he’s lying.” Then he pinned his gaze on Lyra, so many emotions—anger and hurt being the most prevalent—in his ice blue eyes that she nearly crumbled under the intensity of it.

But she stood her ground. She might have made the wrong choice by not telling him the truth a couple days ago, but she couldn’t second guess herself now. Couldn’t worry about the fallout. Vega was all that mattered. “He told you the location?”

He nodded then turned toward Gabriel. “Contact Victoria and a team you trust. They need to leave immediately. We’ll meet them in New Orleans.”

Without a word, Gabriel moved into action, the remaining warrior dragging the vamp with him.

Neither Justus nor Christian made an attempt to stop them. As they left, Justus looked at Lyra. “We want to help you stop Claudius and find your daughter. If he truly believes she’s the one to fulfill Kush’s prophecy we don’t have much time. There’s an eclipse in a day and a half.”

Lyra knew that very well. Each second that passed, it was harder and harder to control her panic. “I know.” She gave him her cell phone number and was surprised when Finn did the same.

As the two vamps programmed the numbers into their phones, Finn grasped her upper arm in an unforgiving grip. Did he think she’d actually try to leave? While his hold didn’t hurt, she wouldn’t be able to pull away from him without a struggle. Justus and Christian both noticed and went for their blades.

She held up a hand. She’d forgotten what it was like to be considered royalty. Well, not
considered
, she technically still was. She’d just assumed her entire coven loathed her. “I’m riding over with Finn?” she said, phrasing it as a question as she looked up at him.

Jaw tight, he nodded. “You’re not leaving my side.” The air around him seethed with pent up emotion.

Oh yeah, he’d have a ton of questions. Some of which she wasn’t sure she was ready to answer. But he deserved to know the truth. He was also insanely angry. Something she tried to ignore.

Justus nodded at Finn. “I’ll try to contact Claudius. Perhaps if he believes we support his cause we can get close to him.”

“You can be involved, but nothing gets in the way of rescuing my daughter. I’m leading this group. We head out now. My pack will be minutes behind us. Once we’re there, my pack and I will assess the location. Claudius
will
die, but Vega’s safety is the most important thing. If that means letting him temporarily escape, so be it. If you put my daughter in danger, I’ll end you.”

It jarred Lyra to hear Finn say ‘my daughter’. Justus looked to Lyra and it took a moment for her to realize he was waiting for her approval.

She nodded. “From this point forward, we’ll do everything Finn says. Vega’s safety is the only thing that matters.”

“And you two will ride with us. I want to hear your conversation when you call Claudius.” There was no room for argument in Finn’s voice and Lyra had been thinking the same thing. She was glad he voiced it.

These two vamps might be treating her with respect, but she wouldn’t take anything at face value. Not with Vega’s life hanging in the balance. The only thing that eased some of her worry was the fact that Claudius needed Vega alive. Her blood had to be fresh. And Lyra was determined that not one precious drop would be shed.

Chapter Eleven

Finn didn’t like having anyone at his back, especially not two vampires he didn’t know. So he’d ordered one of Lyra’s former coven members to drive. The other vamp, Christian, was in the front passenger seat directly in front of him.

“I should have told you a couple days ago. I’m sorry,” Lyra whispered, though he knew it wasn’t because she was trying to keep their conversation a secret. The vamps in the front would hear everything in this enclosed space.

Finn’s hands balled into fists as he tried to contain his inner wolf. Did she think that lame-ass apology was going to cut it? He couldn’t ever remember being so angry. And he rarely needed to fight his beast for dominance. Right now he was walking a razor’s edge of control. The wolf was right there, ready to take over. He couldn’t believe he had a daughter. He hadn’t even suspected Vega might be his. That kind of hybrid mating seemed impossible. “Days ago? Try seventeen fucking years ago.”

She whirled on him, no longer avoiding his gaze—and apparently not caring about their audience. “I won’t apologize for not telling you then! I was ready to tell you that evening at the library—had already told my brother about it! Which was a big mistake in hindsight.” She laughed bitterly, the sound taking on a hysterical edge. “Then
you
made the decision for us, for
me
—that it was too damn dangerous for us to be together. You just kicked me out of your life.”

“It
was
too dangerous!” He didn’t give a shit about their audience at that point either.

Her eyes shot sparks at him. “If it was so damn dangerous, what would the knowledge of a child have changed?” she challenged.

“I had a right to know!”

“No, you didn’t. You can’t have it both ways. If it was too dangerous for us to be together, then it would have been even more so for a child of ours. If your uncle would have found out about her…” She trailed off, some of the edge of her anger seeming to fade as she acknowledged the truth of how impossible their relationship had been back then.

Damn her, she was right. If his uncle had discovered Vega’s existence, he wouldn’t have rested until they were all dead. “You still should have told me. If not seventeen years ago, then when you first came to the compound.”

“Are you freaking kidding me? I hadn’t talked to you in all this time. I was terrified you’d either not believe me and then I’d still be back at square one: alone with no one to help me in the search for Vega. Or, you could have believed me, then still kicked me out of your life—again—and not let me help in the search. I couldn’t ask any of my human friends for help.” She snorted at that, but continued. “I had no one else to turn to and I wasn’t taking a risk you’d keep me in the dark. Finding Vega was and
is
all that matters to me.”

Finn wanted to be angry, tried desperately to hold onto that rage, but he tried to see things from her perspective. Still… “I never would have kept you from finding your—our—daughter.” And it pierced him soul deep she actually thought that.

She looked away then, but not in submission. Staring out the window at the passing cars on I-10, he could see how tense she was. “After a couple days, I realized that. I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

Scrubbing a hand over his face, he let his head fall back. Fuck. He had a daughter he’d never known about. With the woman he’d once loved. Had
never
stopped loving. He wondered if Lyra knew. Hell, how could she not? He hadn’t thought twice about helping her after so long. He’d brought her right into his pack and would kill anyone who dared harm her.

“You went back to Claudius after I ended things?” he asked even though he knew the answer. After what she’d said to Justus back at the rental house it was clear she had.

“Yeah. I swallowed my pride and asked him for shelter until I could move out.”

“He kicked you out, even knowing you were pregnant?”

“
Because
I was pregnant,” she muttered. “He’d apparently known about us, but hadn’t cared. But when I told him… it was too much for him.”

“Why not go to Titus or another coven?” He didn’t know much about her other brother. Only that recently he’d had issues with a werewolf pack Finn was on very good terms with. But damn, he hated thinking of what she’d gone through alone. Kicked out of her coven with no one to help her, cut off from him, then dealing with the pregnancy, birth and raising a child all on her own.

She laughed again, that bitter sound slicing right through him. “He’s worse than Claudius. They hate your kind.”

“It’s true,” Christian murmured quietly from the front, the first words Finn had heard from the tall, lean vampire. “Claudius has archaic ideals and Titus is slowly losing members of his coven because he has the same attitude. One of his best warriors recently mated with a powerful Alpha. Times are changing and their attitudes do
not
reflect the majority of how our coven feels.”

Yeah, he knew about the recent vampire-shifter mating. Rumors about it had made its way across the supernatural grapevine, but he’d heard it directly from the Alpha.

Lyra turned back from the window, but didn’t respond to Christian. It was clear she was surprised though.

Finn wasn’t done discussing Vega with Lyra, but he needed a mental break. Something else to focus on. Gabriel had already texted him that he and a team of warriors were on their way to New Orleans. They were likely only minutes behind them. He tore his gaze from Lyra and looked at the vamp in the front seat. “You disagree with your leader yet you followed his orders to kill two shifters you didn’t know?”

“I disagree with his ideals, but he’s still my coven leader. Or…he was. And I had no reason to believe he’d lied. He’s always been truthful with us. Killing those who kidnapped a member of our royal line was a just order.”

Justus nodded in agreement, but remained silent.

“Do you have a picture of Vega?” Finn asked after a few minutes of silence. He wasn’t sure what he felt right now, aside from anger and loss that he’d been deprived of knowing his own child for all this time, but he wanted to see what his daughter looked like. Especially if… No. Hell, no. They would rescue her.

Guilt flashed through Lyra’s expression for a moment as she nodded and pulled out her phone. He’d asked her if she had a photo earlier but only because he wanted to give it to the others while they were searching. She’d said she didn’t have one on her.

After pressing in her security code, she tapped the camera icon then handed it to him. “I’m not much for these things, but Vega…” Tears filled her eyes as she looked away again. “She got me hooked. They’re almost all of her.”

He opened the first picture…and forgot to breathe. A tall, young woman with midnight black hair stood next to two other teenagers around the same age. They all wore jeans and T-shirts and had their arms around each other as they smiled widely. He didn’t need Lyra to tell him Vega was his. He could see himself reflected in the young, vibrant and beautiful woman she clearly was. It was in her Mediterranean coloring, her facial structure, and that hair.

The next picture was of Vega and Lyra. Their daughter was wearing a cap and gown and Lyra wore a simple black dress. Their arms were wrapped around each other tightly. Lyra looked more like an older sister than mother in physical features, but the maternal pride she felt shined so clearly someone would have to be blind to miss it.

“She looks like you,” he murmured, his chest painfully tight.

He heard her shift in her seat. “She got my eyes, but that’s it. She’s all you.”

“She’s both of us.” And he didn’t know how that made him feel. Overwhelmed. Proud. Awed.

She sniffled as she looked at the picture. “That was her high school graduation. It was supposed to be at noon, but after some…mental persuasion I convinced the principal it would be better to do an evening one. I wasn’t missing her graduation because of a little sun.”

Despite the situation, he barked out a laugh. That sounded exactly like Lyra.

“The kids loved it,” she continued. “They were the first class at their school to ever have one at night. I miss her so much.” Her voice cracked and when she went to turn away again, he couldn’t help himself. No matter how angry he was, he could understand why she’d done what she had, and hurt like hell that he hadn’t been there for her. For either of them.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her in tight. To his surprise, she didn’t fight him, but buried her face in his neck. She didn’t sob or make any outward sounds, but he felt the wetness of her tears as she slightly shook. He rubbed a hand up and down her spine. Holding her soothed the darkest, angriest part of him. If he’d been in her position, he had no idea what he’d have done.

“We’ll get her back, I promise.” Because any other option was unacceptable.

“I have another confession,” she whispered.

He closed his eyes, not sure he wanted to hear it. Wasn’t sure he could take it. “What is it?”

“She wasn’t on her way to a concert. She ran away because she wanted to meet you. It’s why she was in Biloxi.”

Unable to speak, he tightened his grip on Lyra as he rested his chin on top of her head. His daughter had wanted to know him. Knowing that eased him a little. He was still angry, but right now they needed to support each other while they searched for Vega. Anything else would be destructive.