Shattered (40 page)

"You're
talking about your daughter, aren't you?"

"Indeed
I am. You will get no condemnation or scorn from me, Alec Graves, for
what you are about to do, only a question of what I can do to make
your task easier."

"Can
you take care of Rachel for me? James and the girls will step up and
do their best to protect her, but I would feel better if I knew there
was a more experienced individual keeping an eye on everything too."

I
heard Carson swallow as he tried to find the words to convey whatever
he was feeling.

"You
would ask me for something like that despite the short time we've
been together? Despite the fact that you know I've failed at a
similar task in the past?"

"Yeah,
I guess I would. At the end of the day, despite the fact that we come
from very different times, I guess we have more in common than I was
willing to admit. You are an honorable man, Carson. If you agree to
watch over Rachel I know you'll give it your all, just as you gave
the task of training me your all."

"I'm
sorry I was unable to muster more support for your cause there in
Minnesota, Alec. There are so many still who could have come to help,
but only Jenners was willing and then only because of something I did
for him many years ago. My people are a shadow of what they were.
They lost their heart and that made them lose their way. I don't know
how to help them find the path again and now my failure has cost you
your life too."

"No,
Carson, there is no failure here. You've long told me that I can't
compel people to do the right thing."

"You
do honor to your ancestors, Alec."

"That's
pretty high praise considering that they established the monarchy…"

"I'm
aware of that. You could in fact say that I'm uniquely qualified to
make that particular judgment, but you would indeed have made them
very proud."

"Thank
you, Carson. Hearing that means more to me than I would have
expected."

"Then
I'm glad to have been able to say it. Farewell, Alec."

"Farewell,
Carson."

I
heard steps from behind me as I hung up my phone. I turned around to
find that Brindi was back and she'd changed into black cargo pants
and a camouflaged top.

"Do
I look ready for an assault on a secret vampire stronghold, or what?"

"You
may look the part, but you will sadly be staying right here."

"Yeah,
I figured as much, but at least I can look the part." She took
my hand in hers and laced our fingers together again. "You'll be
careful out there, right?"

"As
careful as I know how."

I
led the way back to the conference room and, instead of the earpiece
that I'd been expecting, I was handed a device that looked like a
Bluetooth earpiece, but with a camera and a flexible band that was
designed to wrap completely around my head.

"What's
the camera for?"

Isaac
looked in my direction, but refused to meet my eyes. "Jenners
has access to better tech than I do for this kind of thing, but he
came up one unit short so I managed to scrounge this up. It will send
a camera feed back here to be monitored by Brindi on my laptop. I'll
leave the screen capture running so there is a record of what you
see—you know, in case one of the vampires gets away from you
and we need to hunt them down later."

He
was lying, and everyone in the room but the humans knew it, but that
was okay because it meant that Adri and Brindi still didn't know the
score.

"Thanks,
Isaac, that makes sense since I won't be able to establish a
perimeter around my location."

"Yeah,
no worries. It was really Taggart's idea."

I
looked over at Taggart and the message in his eyes was clear. This
was all about making sure that he and Adri had what they would need
later on to pull the vampires who were going to kill Cindi and me
into Adri's dream. Taggart wasn't going to stop me and he wasn't
going to tell Adri what I was really up to, but he would avenge me
once I was gone.

I
still wouldn't have gone so far as to say that the two of us were
friends, but it was reassuring to know that the vampires I was about
to go up against wouldn't be alive for very long after I was gone. On
the scale of final gifts, it was up towards the top of the possible
options.

"Great,
thanks, Taggart. How much longer do we have? I kind of lost track
over the last few minutes."

Isaac
checked something on his laptop. "We're nearly out of time. If
we don't get on the road in the next couple of minutes we aren't
going to have time for Dominic to make the trip over to the main
building."

I
nodded and then walked over to Adri, once again untangling myself
from Brindi in the process. Adri had been talking to Tristan when I'd
entered the room, but now she turned toward me with a smile.

"Be
careful out there, Alec."

"I
will. You too."

This
time it was me who initiated the hug. I wanted to do more than just
hug her. We were in a conference room full of people and on a tight
time table, but that wasn't the only reason not to kiss her. The real
reason I didn't kiss her was because I knew it would make her
question why I was so desperate to recreate our first and only kiss
so far.

As
much as I wanted to, I knew that I couldn't afford to make her wonder
what was going on. Adri would never agree to trade my life and
Cindi's life in return for saving her parents.

It
took a surprising amount of strength, but I pushed aside the memory
of what it had felt like to have her trembling lips barely touching
mine and instead I just focused on what it felt like to at least have
her in my arms one last time.

She
was tiny, so much smaller than me that I almost felt like I would
break her without meaning to, but that frailty was mostly an
illusion. Her back, arms and waist were firm, with smooth muscles
that she must have developed after countless hours of cheer practice.
She was the perfect combination of hard and soft, and as her arms
tightened around me in response to my obvious urgency, I dropped my
mouth down to her ear.

"I'm
sorry that we haven't spent more time together before now. I'm sorry
that I haven't made more time for you. I hope that you know that I
think about you every day and that I'm sorry you had to go through
this."

She
looked up at me and smiled with such an expression of trust and
happiness that I thought for a moment that my heart would stop.

"Don't
worry, Alec. We're about to make the last few days nothing more than
a bad memory and then we'll have all of the time in the world.
Everything will change—you'll see."

"I
don't doubt it in the least."

Despite
the watching eyes I brushed my lips across her cheek and then turned
and walked towards the door. Brindi was understandably unhappy about
my demonstration with Adri, but she handed me back the car keys and I
gave her a smile of thanks as I walked past her and out the door.

I
slipped on the earpiece and adjusted the supporting band around the
back of my head as I walked and it hummed to life as I reached the
car.

"Hi,
Alec. It looks like I get to help more than I expected to be able
to."

I
unlocked the door and climbed into the car.

"Hi,
Brindi. Can you read off the location of the building for me?"

"I
sure can. Just a second, let me get it from Isaac or one of the
others."

"Thanks."

I
input the address into the car's GPS and a second later was pulling
out of the parking lot.

"I
kind of thought you would have memorized all of the little details
like that while I was out filling the car up."

"I
probably should have. I guess I got a little distracted. I had some
calls to make."

I
looked down at the GPS to confirm how long I had before I would be
arriving and sighed. There was enough time to make a call, but not
enough time to say everything that I wanted to say.

"Can
you give me five minutes and then turn this thing back on?"

"Sure,
go ahead."

It
only took a couple of seconds to dial Rachel.

"Hello?"

"Hi,
Rach."

"This
sounds like my big brother, but I'm pretty sure he's dead. I can't
think of any other reason that he would have let so much time go past
without calling me."

I
winced. "I'm sorry, Rach. It's been a…rough few days.
James' mom got kidnapped and when we went in to save her we ran into
some really, really powerful vampires. We got her out, but Jack lost
most of his team and Chloe's parents were killed too."

I
probably wouldn't have been able to shut her up faster if I'd slapped
her.

"I'm
so sorry, Alec. I didn't mean to be so thoughtless."

"It's
okay, Rach, you didn't have any way of knowing. I'm sorry I haven't
been doing a better job keeping you in the loop. I understand how
hard that must be for you."

"I'm
not sure you really do, Alec. I've got everything I could possibly
want except for someone to confide in. When I was back home at least
I had Mom to talk to. Here I don't have anyone and most of the time
this beautiful house you bought me feels like nothing more than a
large, elaborate cage.

"I
barely leave the house. When I do, I have to go out with big
sunglasses and a hoodie, but even that doesn't help because every
time I see someone who looks like they might be interesting, I
remember that I couldn't be their friend even if they are willing
because I can't trust anyone."

I
didn't know what to say. I didn't have time to get to the root of
Rachel's issue, but I also didn't want my last act on this earth to
be nothing more than blowing my little sister off.

"I
really am sorry, Rachel. What about if you were to go spend some time
with Adri?"

"What,
so I can be the third wheel around the two of you?"

"No,
it's not like that. I don't think that I'm going to get to spend much
time with her any time soon, but maybe the two of you could be
friends."

Rachel
sounded exasperated. "Alec, you can't just pick and choose my
friends for me. I'm sure Adri is nice and all, but that doesn't mean
that we'll end up being friends. I don't know how it works for guys,
but for girls there is a lot that goes into the kind of friendship
where you feel like you can tell each other everything."

I
wanted to yell, or maybe cry. There wasn't anything I could do and I
didn't want to keep lying to Rachel.

"I
understand that it's not as easy as me picking someone out of a
lineup, but I'd appreciate it if you would at least consider spending
some time with her. She's going through some tough times right now
and I think she could use a friend. Plus she's in the same spot as
you are. A lone human surrounded by shape shifters, cut off from the
life she used to know."

Something
in my voice must have given away more than I meant it to. "Alec,
what's going on right now? What are you guys up to?"

"Adri's
family has been kidnapped. I've got about three minutes before I'm
supposed to go on an operation that we are hoping will get them all
out to safety, but these kinds of things don't always go as planned,
so I'm worried that one or more of them might get killed in the
rescue attempt."

"I'll
get in my car and head in that direction this afternoon. She
shouldn't have to go through something like that alone."

"Thanks,
Rach. Do you still have that sealed letter and thumb drive that I
gave you the last time we saw each other?"

"You
mean the letter that you made me swear never to let out of my sight
on pain of death and the encrypted thumb drive that you told me
contains the
keys to the kingdom
?
Of course I have them. In fact, I'm looking at the letter right this
instant to make sure that it isn't thinking about walking off of my
table."

"Can
you write something down on it for me?"

"Yeah,
let me grab a pen."

"Okay,
write James, Jess, and Jasmin's name down and put a one and the
letter 'B' after each of their names. After that, put down Isaac's
name and a three followed by a 'B'."

"Anyone
else's name you want me to add a letter to?"

"Yeah.
Brindi needs a three and an 'M', Jack needs a 2 and a 'B' and Carson
needs a 4 and a 'B'."

"I'm
starting to feel left out here, Alec. Unless this is some kind of
cryptic demerit system, then you can leave me off of the list."

"Nope,
you get a demerit too, but first put Alison down with a ten and an
'M' and Adri down with a two and a 'B'. You're at the bottom and you
just get letters, an 'R,' an 'O' and an 'F'."

"Should
I be worried that I don't get a number?"

She
still sounded like she was joking, but I could tell that the wheels
in her mind were starting to turn.

"Nope,
that just means that you're only on the warning list."

The
GPS was flashing at me to make sure that I knew I was coming up on my
last turn. I was out of time.

"Rach,
I'm really sorry, but I have go. Things will be different after this
mission, I promise. Drive carefully and remember that I love you."

"I
love you too, Alec. I can't wait to see you."

"Yeah,
ditto, kid, ditto."

I
hung up as I pulled up next to Dominic, who had seen me coming and
stepped out just far enough that she could be seen if you knew enough
to be looking for her.

"Hi,
Alec. What's the plan?"

"They
need you back at the main building as soon as possible. You can go
ahead and take my vehicle if you want."

I
could see the questions in her eyes, but Dom was a good soldier. She
just nodded and climbed into the driver's seat while I held the door
for her.