The Chosen Ones (25 page)

His left arm looped around my
waist, warm, but not comforting. No, I wanted nothing more than to get away
from him, head to shore and find peace, alone. I didn’t like the way my body
reacted to his nearness; my heart and mind at war.

“Because you hate relying on
other people, don’t you?”

How did he know that? “Maybe.”

“Okay then.” He let go of one
hand and placed it on my back. “Relax.”

I gripped his shoulders. “No.”

“I have you, Jane.”

I stared into his eyes for one
long moment. He was completely serious, and he was waiting…waiting for me to
trust him. But this wasn’t just about trust. I didn’t want to be weak anymore.
Not knowing how to swim was a weakness. Breaking the eye contact, I leaned
back. His hands were there, holding me afloat.

“Close your eyes, relax.”

I closed my eyes, but my body
remained stiff, my heart pounding as the water lapped against me. All I could
think about were those huge waves that hit me over and over, filling my lungs
with salt water as Thane and I had made our escape.
 

A wave hit me. Panicked, I
opened my eyes and thrashed in the water.

“Never mind,” Thane muttered,
grabbing me around the waist and pulling me close. “Calm down.”

“I…I can’t do this,” I said
through chattering teeth. I was cold, so bitterly cold. “I want to go back.”

“Damn it, Jane, look at me,”
Thane demanded.

I forced myself to focus on him.

“Keep my gaze. Relax. You need
to learn how to swim. I swear I won’t let anything happen to you. Ever.”

As I stared into his eyes,
something odd happened…I actually believed him. My body felt heavy, my mind
lost its frantic edge and I started to relax.

“Not too much,” he said, his
voice pulling me back. “Don’t fall asleep.”

“What are you doing?” I
murmured. How odd that his eyes were the color of the sky so I wasn’t sure
where he ended and the world began. The desperation I’d felt vanished like the
breeze sweeping across the sea. I knew in the deep recesses of my mind that
something odd was happening, but I couldn’t seem to dredge up enough energy to
care.

“I’m helping you relax.”

I smiled up at him. Right.
Relax. Wait…what? I blinked my eyes, jerking my gaze from him. The confusion
made me thrash and I found myself going under. Bitterly cold water rushed over
my head. Just as suddenly as I went under, Thane’s hands were at my waist,
pulling me up out of the water and holding me close to his warm body.

Gasping for air, I met his gaze.
“What just happened?”
 

“Nothing.” Lifting me, he
cradled my body against his chest and started toward the shore. But it wasn’t
nothing, I could tell by the way he was avoiding eye contact. Perhaps I was
starting to understand Thane after all, and something was definitely
suspicious.

The moment my feet could touch
the ground, I pushed at his chest. “What did you do?”

Waist deep, he loosened his hold
and I slid down his body, into the water. “I can persuade people.”

Confused, I shook my head. “What
does that mean?”

He shrugged. “It’s been known to
happen with blood drinkers, but no one knows I have the gift. If they had, they
would have used me even more than they did.”

“What are you talking about?” I
demanded.

His jaw clenched, his gaze
uneasy. “I can somehow persuade people to do my bidding. They have to be looking
in my eyes, and willing, but if they are, I can make them relax. Almost hypnotize
them.”

Hypnotize, I’d heard that word
before. “At the castle when I fainted and woke up in that field….”

He stepped toward me. “Jane—”

“You manipulated me!” I stepped
back, shocked. “And you said I could trust you.”

“Jane, it’s not…”

But I didn’t wait around to hear
his defense. Horrified and disappointed, I raced to the shore and scooped up my
clothes. I wasn’t even sure what angered me more, that Thane had betrayed me,
or that I had trusted him. Finding the trail that led back to the house, I
raced toward the cottage, letting my humiliation spur me forward.

****

My body and mind no longer felt like
my own. Every time I thought I might be regaining control, it was torn from my
grip.

Desperately, I tried to think
back and remember any other time when Thane might have used his strange ability
on me. The jump at the castle, that night in the boat house, and today. Fortunately,
I couldn’t think of any other odd moments. But it did little to ease my mind.
How could he?

I picked up a stick and pushed
at the logs in the fire pit. Sparks took flight, floating high, glowing like
the stars that were just barely visible in the evening sky. Thane hadn’t
returned since our argument at the beach. Part of me wanted to hear what he had
to say, part of me just wanted to hit him…hard.

I leaned back in the wicker
chair Grandfather had made and watched him through the windows as he paced back
and forth in his living room. He was mumbling to himself. Not exactly a good
sign. How could this man possibly be Raven? A leader of men? It seemed
preposterous and dangerous that he was giving orders.

The sudden snap of a tree branch
alerted me to Thane’s presence. He strolled up the trail that led through the
woods, his face emotionless, eyes guarded. He was dressed again and his hair
had dried, the ends curling at his neck and against his scarred cheek. He
didn’t wear the hood, but then I realized that he never wore the hood around me
anymore. His gaze found me and I quickly looked away.

But my lack of eye contact
didn’t dissuade him. He settled in the chair next to mine and we lapsed into awkward
silence. While I continued my assault on the fire pit, he merely sat there
watching.

“I apologize,” he finally said
in an awkward way that made me wonder if he’d ever apologized to anyone in his
life.

“Swear you’ll never influence me
again.”

“I can’t.”

I surged to my feet in outrage.
“What?”

“I won’t,” he said in a hard
tone. “If I feel that it will save your life, I’ll do it again.”

My anger boiled. “Because I’m so
important.” I pointed the stick I held at the cottage. “Because of him, right?
You had to save me because he’s my grandfather.”

Thane didn’t respond.

“What? Did you think I might
have more influence over him?” I released a harsh laugh. “Bet you were
surprised when the man treated me like he would anyone else.”

“Jane, he would have killed
anyone else. I don’t think you get that.”

I hated how calm and rational he
sounded. “He wouldn’t.”

He surged to his feet, towering
over me. “He would. Where do you think he got those skeletons?”

I shivered. He was serious.
Grandfather had killed those men merely so he could study their bones? “No, he…”

But Thane was completely
serious. My gaze went to the cottage window where Grandfather was most likely
injecting some poor rabbit with our serum. I could no longer see him, and like
the toddlers I used to watch in the compound, I worried he was doing something
he shouldn’t.

“I’ve only influenced you three
times,” Thane said. “The night we escaped the castle, in that cottage by the
pier, and now.”

As if I should forgive him
merely because he hadn’t had a chance to do it again. Slowly, I settled back in
my chair, wondering if I could ever trust him. Just when I found myself
softening toward him, something always put me back on edge. “Why?”

He sat too, raking his hands
through his hair as if flustered. “Out of necessity.”

Angry, I laughed and dropped the
stick. “Today was a necessity?”

“We’re on an island, Jane. If you
need to escape without me, you need to know how to swim. Even a boat can tip.”

To say I was startled by his
statement would be putting it lightly. The thought of being alone out there without
Thane, terrified me much more than I wanted it to. “What are you saying? Are
you leaving me here?”

“No. Of course not.” There was a
telling pause. “But you could stay, you know.”

“Where?”

“Here.” He studied the open
clearing. “You don’t have to return to the mainland. Stay here, get to know
your grandfather. You’d be safer on this island than the mainland.”

The thought was tempting. Too
tempting. I’d known a peace here that I hadn’t experienced in over a month. But
being on this island wasn’t much different than being in that compound, was it?
I was still trapped. I had friends out there in the real world, friends who
were counting on me. Friends who might still be alive.

“And would you stay too?”

He watched me through those
eerie eyes. “You know I can’t. Your grandfather is making plans even now to
kill me and research my body.”

Sadly, I believed him. I
swallowed hard and looked back at the house. The windows were empty, but they
glowed warmly from the firelight inside. Truth of the matter was, without Thane
here, my unease around my grandfather would surge. “I don’t know if I’m any
safer with him than with the beautiful ones on the mainland.”

“You are.”
 

So if I stayed, he would leave
me then, just like that. As if we’d never met. Did he want me to stay? Was I a
bother to him? The thought stung. “How long would I be safe here anyway? After
all we have to face the real world soon enough, right?” I was babbling, but
couldn’t seem to stop. All I knew was that the thought of being without Thane
terrified me. “Besides, staying here would be no better than staying in those
compounds and—”

“Shhh,” Thane whispered, his
gaze on the woods.

Frowning, I started to ask what
was wrong when he surged to his feet, his body tense, those hands fisted. I
knew the look well by now. Well enough to know he’d heard something or someone.
“What is it?”

“The water sounds odd.”

Since I couldn’t hear the water
from where we stood I took his word for it. “Odd? In what way?”

He shook his head slowly. “It’s
stopped.”

My heart slammed wildly in my
chest and I had to remind myself that the beautiful ones didn’t like water.
Thane closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, as if trying to sense the
world around us. For a few minutes everything was silent. I didn’t dare speak
although I was dying to ask questions.

His eyes popped open, glowing
white-blue. “They’ve found us.”

I knew immediately who he spoke
of. Without pause, Thane raced into the cabin. I ran after him, my heart
slamming erratically against my ribcage. When I reached the cottage, Thane had
already told my grandfather.

“On my land?” Raven demanded. He
seemed angrier about the prospect of someone invading his privacy than the fact
that they were beautiful ones out to kill us. With heated footsteps, he stomped
toward the counters that made up his kitchen.

“I’m not sure how many,” Thane
admitted. “But they’re coming fast.”

“Damn bastards growing more bold
every week.” Grandfather knelt, pulling a case out from underneath the counter.
“Was afraid this was going to happen. Had heard reports of them surveying the
island from the mainland.”

In other words, we weren’t safe
here.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Thane
snapped.

But grandfather ignored him, turning
toward me and tossing something. “Take it!”

I caught the gun right before it
fell. I was reminded only too well of when Will had given me that sword and I
hadn’t a clue what to do with it. If only I had my sword now. “How does it work?”

“See that little trigger? Point
the gun and push that.”

It seemed so simple.

I held the gun by the tips of my
fingers, afraid it would go off and I’d kill Thane or Grandfather or worse,
myself. “Why haven’t they attacked yet? No offense, but they aren’t known for
their patience.”
 

Thane headed to the windows and
brushed aside the curtains. Grandfather was rushing around the room, gathering
a variety of supplies and stuffing them in a bag as if he was going to flee: food,
a blanket, what looked to be some sort of small bow and arrow.

“They’re just in the woods.” Thane
let the curtain fall back into place. “They’re waiting for us.”

“Waiting for what?” I demanded.
The gun felt cold and heavy and unfamiliar in my hands. I’d seen how fast beautiful
ones moved. Could I really shoot one before it got to me? Or would I end up
shooting my foot instead?
 

“Waiting for us to attack.”

“How many?” Grandfather asked, holding
out a gun for Thane.

Thane took the weapon. “Ten, at
least. I can’t take them all. Especially considering I haven’t fed.”

It took me a moment for me to
realize Thane meant he hadn’t fed on blood. Which meant he was weaker than
normal. Unless Grandfather had a magic tunnel that led underneath the ocean to
the mainland, we were in trouble.

My grandfather started toward
the door as if he’d done this plenty of times before. “Let’s go.”

“We can’t just walk out there!”
I snapped. What was wrong with him? Did he honestly think he could take on ten
vampires? Had he not heard Thane? The man truly was insane.

Grandfather paused, glancing
back at me. “What choice do we have? Wait until they attack? This is my land,
and I’ll go down fighting, if I have to, in order to protect it.”
 

Yeah, completely insane. “He
can’t be serious. Thane, do something! He’s walking into his death.”

“Do we care?” he muttered.

I parted my lips, intending to
tell them both where to shove their stupid plans, when there was a sudden thump
on the roof. I froze, my gaze on the ceiling. Another thump and another.

“Three,” Thane said softly.

“Oh God, they’re on the roof.”