The Chosen Ones (9 page)

He didn’t seem offended, his
gaze as unreadable as always. “It’s a marking so they know who I am.”

“They?”

“The beautiful ones.”

He said beautiful ones as if he
wasn’t one of them, as if he didn’t pick us for slaughter every Sunday of every
month. As if he didn’t feed off blood. “Who are you?”

“A dhampir.”

I frowned, confused. “What do
you mean?”

“My mother was vampire, my
father human.”

I surged to my feet, stunned.
Surely he didn’t mean it. They couldn’t, not with humans…could they? “No.”

He merely stood there, finding
my shock amusing. Yet, as I studied his face it was obvious he was completely
serious. He was half-human? For some reason it made his actions even worse. He
was half-human yet he’d let them murder us for years. Why hadn’t he escaped?
Why hadn’t he joined Will? Why did he continue to let them destroy innocents?

My hands curled as I resisted
the urge to scream at him. Getting angry wouldn’t give me answers. And I needed
answers so badly. “And the scar?”

He crossed his arms over his
chest and gazed out over the river, completely unconcerned. “We look exactly
like the beautiful ones, so when we are born they mark us to know the
difference. We don’t heal as well as they do. We scar.”

They took a knife to a baby’s
face? I felt utterly ill. They were worse than I had imagined. I pushed aside
the images of bloody children, knowing I couldn’t let my compassion get in the
way. “So, they don’t treat you the same?”

He laughed, a harsh sound. “No.
We are servants to them. Just as some of your people are.”

“Those who are lucky.”

“No,” he snapped, surprising me
with his harsh tone. “Not lucky. Far from it. In fact, they have it worse.
Imagine working in fear for weeks, months,
years
,
knowing at any moment you could be killed.”

I hadn’t thought about it that
way. At least we had lived in ignorant bliss for most of our lives. “And you picked
the ripe ones for them to feed upon…that’s your job?”

He nodded slowly, watching me. I
knew he was waiting for the judgment. I wanted to feel sorry for him, I wanted
to feel something. Even anger would have been welcome. But all I felt was
guilt. Guilt that I had survived and Sally hadn’t. Guilt that I still lived,
while she had suffered. Guilt that my sister and brothers and everyone I’d ever
known were merely awaiting death. And I could only blame him. He had forced me
to abandon Sally.

“You left them,” I whispered. “All
of them. You let Sally die.”

“I had to, Jane. Will is right, I
can’t save them all. If I tried, I’d be caught and killed as well. And then
there would be no one to help. No one on the inside.”

But I wasn’t going to accept his
easy answer. “How could you? How can you go there day after day and pretend not
to hear the screams? Pretend not to see the torture?”

“I hear them,” he snapped, his
eyes flashing. “I hear them every time I try to sleep. I see the blood every
time I close my eyes. But there’s not a damn thing I can do.”

My mind spun, a myriad of
emotions fighting for dominance. I didn’t want to feel sorry for him, I
couldn’t. Surely there was something…anything…

“I can’t save them all,” he
insisted, as if reading my mind. “I can only save a few every so often. It’s
better than none.”

Was he looking for reassurance?
I wasn’t sure I could give him any. “Why did you save me? Why me?”

He studied me carefully, so
fully that I felt a blush rise up into my cheeks, but I didn’t dare look away.
I needed answers. “There are two kinds of people in this world, Jane. The ones
who are content and believe everything they’re told, questioning nothing.”

I wasn’t sure where he was
going, but I’d play along. “And the other kind of person?”

“The other kind are those few who
need to uncover as much as they can. Those who question everything, who know
there is more to life than what they see before them.”

“What does that have to do with
anything?”

The darker it became, the more
his eyes seemed to glow like a cat’s. “I picked you because you wanted more. It’s
how I choose everyone I save.”

I shook my head and surged to my
feet. “You couldn’t know that. How?” I stepped closer, angry at him for
bringing me into this world, angrier still that he was making me out to be
someone I wasn’t. How dare he act as if he knew me. He didn’t know anything
about me. “How did you know I would belong here? Because I certainly don’t know
if I do.”

He stood and stepped close, so
close I could feel his heat. So close that his scent swirled around me, warming
my insides. So close that instinctively I wanted to step back, but I forced
myself to hold my ground.

“I knew, Jane, because you took
the bait. You took the books.”

Chapter
6

I stumbled back a step, as if
distance would make things clearer. “The books?
My
books.”

He didn’t respond, merely
watched me closely as if to see my reaction. In that moment I realized he was
utterly serious. I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling vulnerable, confused,
and completely unsettled. I’d thought those books had appeared by something
wonderful, something magical. And now that had been torn from my grip, crushed
beneath Thanatos’ tarnished black boots.

Stupid, stupid me. I should have
known better, for there was no magic in this harsh reality.

“The books I found…you had
placed them there?” I asked, still confused, and needing the clarity only he
could offer. “All this time, you knew who I was?”

“Yes.” He moved toward the creek,
knelt along the water’s edge and cupped his hands to drink. He was dismissing
me, as if I needed no further explanation.

“I don’t understand.”

“I leave the books behind as
bait. I’ve done it at every compound. When someone picks them up, studies them,
it says they might want more.” He stood and faced me. “You read them. All of
them. Word for word. No one has ever done that before.”

If he knew I’d read them, that meant
he must have been studying me. My little nest where I thought I’d had a bit of privacy
had been a ruse. “You were you watching me?”

He shrugged as if it was of no
consequence. “I had to. It’s the only way, the best way, to know who will be
willing to fight.”

For months this man had watched
my every move. Had watched me and Tom. Had he seen us that last day together?
Had he seen Tom give me that necklace? Watched us embrace? Embarrassment fought
with anger. “Fight for what? What, exactly, do you want from all of this?”

“The same thing you want.
Freedom.” He started toward me, and I had to resist the urge to flinch, forcing
myself to stand my ground. “A chance to live my life the way I want to, no judgment,
no repercussions.”

I released a wry laugh. “You
think we can all live together in peace?”

When he didn’t respond I
realized he was utterly serious. Thane honestly believed we could work
together. But staring into his hard, uncompromising gaze only sent me back in
time to that moment in the compound when he’d picked me. It had always seemed
like a faraway dream. But now it was vivid…clear.

The many guards with scars
across their perfect faces. I knew now that those guards were dhampir. But the
only thing I could picture were their angry snarls…the way they had pushed us
around, almost as if they blamed us for their predicament. We might have had a
common enemy, but it was obvious that even the dhampir didn’t want to live in
peace with us. How could we possibly work together? And when it came down to
it, would Thane choose to side with the dhampir or with us?

“But at the compound you didn’t
want them to pick me.” I remembered quite clearly the way he’d refused to
choose me, but had been forced to take me along. “You tried to talk Bacchus out
of it.”

“No.” He glanced toward the dark
woods, as if weighing his next words. It was obvious in that moment that he
wasn’t telling me all. Not that I was surprised; I wasn’t exactly admitting my
deepest, darkest secrets either. “My plan was to help you escape the compound.
It’s a bit more complicated at the castle.”

Complicated? This entire world
was complicated. “You’ve chosen others like me?”

Those eyes glowed eerily in the
dim light. “Yes. Jimmy, Kelly, Tony, and many, many others.”

That explained why they were so
loyal to him, and why they thought I should be loyal as well. But it still
didn’t explain how I could possibly forget the fact that, every day, he stayed at
that castle while people suffered, and died.

He stepped closer and I had to
resist the urge to step back. In the fading dusk, with that ugly scowl and that
scar across his face, he was intimidating, to say the least. “I understand you
think you’re being loyal to your friends back at the compound by leaving.
You’ve decided to be a martyr and to walk into battle alone. But truth of the
matter is if you stay out here, you’ll be dead by tonight, tomorrow the latest.
You need Will, and you need to keep training. Even animals stay in packs for
safety.”

His words and attitude annoyed
me. I’d never met anyone so arrogant. Whether he’d admit it or not, he didn’t
know me. He might have observed me like some scientist with a specimen, but he
didn’t know my thoughts, my feelings, my hopes. “And that’s what we are to you
people, isn’t it? Mere animals?”

He didn’t respond. He didn’t
need to. I knew the truth.

But he was right about one thing.
I wouldn’t last on my own. Yes, he had saved me two weeks ago, and so I’d give
him the respect he deserved, at least when we were face to face. But I wouldn’t
trust him. Not ever. And the moment I was ready, I was headed out on my own. I
only hoped that I would be ready soon. “Fine.” I started to reach for my bag.
“I’ll return. I’ll—”

“Shhh,” he interrupted.

Startled, I drew back. He was
like a predator, his gaze flickering from shadow to shadow, searching for a prey
I couldn’t see or hear. I knew that look well; I remembered seeing it back at
the castle. We were in danger. The urge to panic overwhelmed me.

“Someone’s coming,” he
whispered.

My heart slammed wildly against
my chest, blood roaring in denial. “Will?”

He shook his head, stepping in
front of me as if to protect. The realization was like a cold slap to my face,
and just what I needed. I didn’t want him to protect me. I didn’t want anything
from him. I rested my trembling hand against my thigh, taking comfort, however
small, in the feel of the dagger strapped there. I would protect myself, or die
trying.

“Beautiful ones,” he murmured.
 
 

I hated myself for the shiver of
pure fear that raised the fine hairs on the back of my neck. Had Thanatos brought
them here on purpose? Had he led them to me? Had he betrayed us all?

“Stay behind me,” he said softly.

He didn’t look afraid, only
determined, which made me only more suspicious. Slowly, I reached for the
dagger at my thigh. Just as slowly I pulled the weapon from its sheath, wishing
I’d brought my sword. I hadn’t made a sound, but Thanatos glanced back, as if
he heard the noise. But when he noticed the dagger clutched in my hands, he
merely turned back around, as if it didn’t concern him in the least. I could
easily stab him in the back, but he either trusted me or thought I was too weak
to worry about.

“Do you know how many?” I
whispered.

The rushing sound of water
blocked any noise. I could hear no footsteps, no conversation. I wouldn’t have
been surprised if he lied merely to scare me back into Will’s camp.

“Four,” he said, starting up the
gentle slope of the bank. He moved like a predator too, silent and low to the
ground. I was less elegant as I scrambled after him. “No, five.”

How could he possibly know how
many there were unless he had brought them? My wariness was brushed aside when
I heard the low laughter of the beautiful ones. Fear tasted bitter on my
tongue, but underneath my nervousness was anger, a burning rage that made me
want to burst forward and attack, kill as many as I could before they crushed
me. I hated them with a passion that I had never felt before.

Thane crouched low behind the
tree. I forced myself to follow his lead, determined to be rational, instead of
reacting under the heavy weight of my emotions like I wanted.

“Hunting party,” he whispered. “You
stay here.”

Hunting? It took me a moment to
remember that they weren’t hunting deer or rabbit…but humans. They were here to
feed on escaped chosen ones. Sweat broke out across my forehead, and my hands
trembled so badly I feared I might drop my dagger. Unless Thane helped me, I
knew without a doubt I would die.

They broke through the trees, a
merry party of beautiful ones that even still momentarily stunned me with their
elegance. Thane had been wrong. There was only one man and two women in
brilliant clothing that shimmered under the low light of the waxing moon, like
some dream. Their laughter, the bright flash of their perfect smiles was like a
painting from long ago brought to life.

Slowly, Thane stood. “Stay
here.”

He moved onto a deer path and out
into an open patch before I could latch onto him and draw him back. Idiot was
going to get himself killed, and me in the process. He made no pretense of
sneaking up on the beautiful ones, but moved through the underbrush without
care. Obviously he wasn’t planning a surprise attack. But then what was he
planning?
 

“What are you doing here?” Thane
demanded as if he was actually in charge. I knew he wasn’t, but I also wasn’t
surprised when they actually stopped, obeying his command. Not one blood
drinker seemed shocked to see him. Had they sensed him coming? Maybe heard him?
Or was something nefarious afoot…was this a set up?