What Lies Inside (A Blood Bound Novel, Book 1) (48 page)

Kendrick’s fury grew, flames licking at his insides. But I faltered. My connection to Marcus made me want to question what I knew and believed. Were my suspicions wrong?

Kendrick however, had no such reservations, and hurled himself at Marcus. “Liar!”

Marcus ducked, dodging Kendrick’s advancing fist. His hand easily collected Kendrick’s wrist, then twisted his arm behind his back. With his face lit by hardened rage, he drove my best friend against the stone wall.

“Stop!” I screamed. Kendrick’s connection to the wall hit me as if I’d been the one thrown against it. Oxygen belted from my lungs. I gasped for breath, staggering and dizzy. “Marcus, don’t hurt him,
please
.”

Marcus’s hardened expression froze, seeing the unmasked pain he had just caused me. His extended arm against the back of Kendrick’s neck softened instantly, but his iron crowbar strength didn’t let go. It kept Kendrick pinned without causing further pain. “It happened. Didn’t it?”

Kendrick was struggling to free himself, seething with the need to attack again. But he couldn’t muster enough strength to escape Marcus’s restraining arm.

I too felt the urge to retaliate, to rake Marcus over with the chains I held. But I didn’t. Instead I lowered the ready chains, strung tight between both hands. “What are you talking about?” I demanded. “What happened?”

A strangled smile fell from Marcus’s face and his teal eyes grew stormy. “Your soul, it’s bound to Kendrick’s.”

“How do you know that?” Kendrick’s voice mirrored my own.

Marcus released my best friend and shoved him back toward me. “’Cause it was supposed to be me!
I
was supposed to resurrect you.
I
was supposed to bring you back to life.”

Don’t believe a word he says,
Kendrick’s deep voice echoed inside my head.

The words Marcus had spoken to Kendrick in my vision blew through my ears.
It’s happening tonight.
He had known all along what Caius had planned to do to me. He had helped him. Why would he want to save me? My voice emerged hollow. “But you poisoned me.”

Marcus crossed his arms over his double-breasted pea coat. “I did it to save your life.”

I laughed, mimicking Kendrick. Yet the part deep within me that recognized Marcus wanted to believe him.

“Amelia, no!” Kendrick tugged on my arm. Then my brain tingled with an almost prickling sensation of something, no someone, sifting through my thoughts. Through the eerie link of our bond, Kendrick could hear my conflicting thoughts. He could also feel the unexplainable connection I felt to Marcus.

I sent a wordless message to Kendrick, lacing my fingers through his.
Let’s see where he’s going with this.
Squaring my shoulders with mock strength, I looked pointedly to Marcus. My free hand clutched the chains to my waist. “Explain yourself.”

Marcus grimaced, eyes set on our entwined fingers, but nodded. “Everything I did was to protect you: the compulsion, erasing of your memories. You needed to be unaware so that Caius’s plans remained unchanged. So that I would know when he would come for you.”

Kendrick’s grip on my hand tightened as words traveled from his mind to mine.
Lies, all lies. Don’t believe him.

“So, you poisoned me because Caius compelled you?” I was desperate to exonerate Marcus. Desperate to believe he hadn’t acted of his own freewill.

“No.” Marcus shook his head. “That was all me. Caius didn’t know.”

“See,” Kendrick hissed while my heart squeezed. “He doesn’t even deny it.”

“Of course I don’t!” Marcus ruffled his straight blond hair, frustrated. “Poisoning Amelia was the only way to save her life.” He stepped forward, and a low snarl reverberated from Kendrick’s throat. “Amelia, I needed your body and heart to replicate death. As your blood levels became dangerously low, the poison would slow the beat of your heart. Caius would mistake its lack of beat for death. Don’t you see? The poison saved you. It foiled Caius’s plan to become immortal.”

Marcus took my hand. I half expected Kendrick to lunge again, to tear him away from me. But he didn’t. He was just as frozen by Marcus’s admission as I was. Through our bond I could recall the closeness of their friendship. How Kendrick had looked up to Marcus. How he had confided his feelings and worries for me. And Marcus had always been there to listen and make helpful, unbiased suggestions.

“You were going to be the one to bring me back to life.” My tone was hollow as I pieced the puzzle of everything together. Realization etched through mine and Kendrick’s minds simultaneously. “You knew I possessed a link to spirit?”

“
You,
” Kendrick coughed, staring at Marcus. “
You
intended to bond with Amelia? To be bound to her in life and eventually in death—for all eternity?”

“What?” Kendrick’s thoughts were rushing through my head, too fast, too muddled to make sense of.

Marcus released my hand and turned to the doorway with a shoulder-lifting sigh. “Even in death, a spirit blood bond cannot be severed.”

As Marcus turned away I heard a clatter. Something rolled across the uneven stone floor. He moved in a flash, swooping before reaching the doorway. “We have to go, now. I intercepted the guards on my way down and compelled them away. Caius was already gone, but it won’t be too long before he realizes something’s gone astray.”

After a fleeting look at the dank chamber that could have been my final resting place, we rushed after Marcus. Our shoes splashed through an inch of foul-smelling water in the shadow-darkened tunnel. It was so rank I had to fight the urge to gag. That smell was never coming out of my Vans.

After a string of labyrinth twists and turns, Marcus disappeared into a dark recess in the tunnel. It was one of many recesses we had already passed. A loud protesting creak of weakened metal echoed past us. Marcus had begun climbing a rickety, spiraling staircase. Kendrick’s hand found mine and he pulled me onward. The rusted stairs protested louder with high-pitched squeals. I cringed. Good luck sneaking out of this place unseen or unheard.

Before I could dwell on the complication, trepidation channeled through my heart, elevating its beat to marathon speed. The feeling wasn’t my own, but Kendrick’s, except not for this moment. I could see through his eyes and feel the fear that stole his breath on receiving my dire text. He had raced downstairs after searching my room and burst into Caius’s office.

For a moment, I wondered if he’d somehow figured out that Caius had been behind my disappearance. But no. He’d instinctively gone there hoping Caius would be able to help find me. Of course he’d found no one. We had already disappeared below.

Defeated, Kendrick had turned to leave. If finding me meant searching the entire castle and its surrounding grounds, he’d do it. But then he paused. The room’s light had caught on something that reflected a pure-white flash of light. He spun back, eyes dropping to the source of light and finding the diamond-cut paperweight. Its tip was smeared with blood. More blood spattered across the wooden floorboards to disappear beneath the edge of the Persian rug.

My breath had turned sharp and shallow and I fought to steady it. Kendrick’s hand tightened over mine. He was about to ask what was wrong, but then he knew, feeling his way through my thoughts. My free hand rose to the bruised spot on my temple. I remembered the moment pain had pierced my skull, rendering me unconscious.

A stream of light from above forced my attention from Kendrick’s memories, slamming me back into the present. Marcus had edged open the trap door and was now scanning through the crack. Nervous sweat dampened my palms.

“It’s clear.” Marcus flicked us a backward glance before throwing open the hinged door.

I sucked in a breath as we stepped up and into the center of Caius’s office. The room was, as Marcus had declared, ‘clear’. Not a single object seemed out of place. The leather-topped desk was its usual mess of skewed papers and folders. The blood that had dripped from my head and patterned the wooden floor had been wiped clean. The diamond paperweight had also been repositioned atop the desk. It was now free of any damning remnants of my spilled blood.

“What now?” I asked. In all truth I wanted nothing more than to escape the Armaya and its surrounding grounds for good. But I couldn’t. We couldn’t. Not yet.

“You think we can find a clue?” Kendrick asked, retracing his steps back to me from the door. From the uncomfortable prickle in my head, I could tell he’d read my thoughts. Now he understood my hesitation.

“A clue for what?” Marcus questioned glancing from Kendrick to me. “You know there really isn’t any time.”

Your gift of eternal life will grant me the stepping stone I require to save—.

Caius had said the words when he thought I’d never live to contemplate them. Now I couldn’t ignore the threat. There was a hidden meaning behind Caius’s cut-off admission. It was clear that taking my life was just the beginning. But what would taking my life help him save? Would immortality ensure his ability to rule forever? That is the ultimate desire of an evil mastermind, isn’t it? Power, eternal life…

“Caius is planning something.” I moved behind the desk and began rifling through the stack of papers. “Immortality was just the beginning.”

“Planning what?” Marcus eyed me then shifted his weight, glancing at the door to the hallway.

“I don’t know, exactly.” I shoved the remaining folders from the desk, frustrated at only finding minute records from boring council meetings.

Kendrick had begun sifting through one of the mahogany bookshelves. “And we need to figure out,” he said throwing me a quick glance, “how your blood could grant Caius immortality.” His next words were mute, for my recognition only. Kendrick may have accepted Marcus’s explanation, but he still had reservations about his motives in all of this.
How it’s possible that you possess The Sight.

There was a mental prompt to keep my mouth zipped on revealing my ability. I was about to question it when Marcus dug into his pocket. He pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to me. “These are the only immortals I’ve ever heard of.”

Kendrick, intrigued and suspicious, moved from the bookcase to stare over my shoulder. The parchment paper was thin and delicate, inscribed with a scrawl of handwritten cursive. It wasn’t addressed or signed.

‘The damned are evolving, and I fear we may lose control.’

“Where did you get this?” Kendrick narrowed his eyes at Marcus accusingly. “I thought the damned were hunted to extinction.”

Marcus mocked insult. “I found it during one of my snoops. It was jammed behind the top drawer in Caius’s desk. And,” he added, “I too believed the damned were extinct.”

Acid crept up my throat. Just the word
damned
brought pulsing coldness to my heart that threatened to spread like poison throughout my entire body. I swallowed as a memory rose to the surface. “The diary of
Uriel Aswind….
” I turned to Marcus, disbelieving. “You were the last person to check it out from the library.”

“
You
ripped out the pages?” Kendrick accused Marcus, recalling my memories just as I did.

Marcus’s looked incensed. “You still don’t trust me? Even after everything I’ve done for you.” When Kendrick and I remained silent, he moved to me. His fingers curled around my hand that clutched the note. A slight spark of electricity tickled my skin. “This note is not the first time I have heard current mention of the damned.” He released my hand. “You tend to pick up things when someone believes they can to compel you to forget. And you are right. Caius
is
planning something, but apart from being linked to the damned in some way, I have no idea what that something is.”

“Then we have to go to The Council,” I blurted, tension rising up my neck. “Tell them what Caius did to me, and show them the note.”

“No!” Marcus and Kendrick barked in unison.

Marcus motioned to the door mumbling at Kendrick, “You explain it to her.”

Kendrick tilted his head and grasped me by the elbow, forcing me from the room. The hallway was still strangely unlit, and bar the three of us with our quick, sloshing footsteps, it appeared vacated.

“Explain what?” I demanded feeling irritated by their childlike treatment of me. This situation had as much to do with me as it did either of them, if not more. Shouldn’t I have a say?

They’ll never believe us,
Kendrick’s thoughts merged inside my head.
We have no proof.

“We have the note,” I corrected as we climbed the stairs. With my free arm I drew back my long matted hair from my neck. “And we have these.” I knew the bite marks had already closed up. But through Kendrick’s quick glance, I could see white scarring as well as drying, smudged blood. The proof of my punctured flesh was there. “My blood must have marked the ground in that cell, a cell that Caius has access to. Plus there are three of us against one. They’ll have to believe us.”

We entered my room after Marcus who was now on his mobile, barking commands into the speaker. “Have my car fueled and ready in two minutes.”

“Look Amelia,” Kendrick said gripping my upper arms with curled fingers. “I want to tell them. You know I do. But the note wasn’t addressed to Caius. It’s not irrefutable proof. Besides, those tunnels and cells are the catacombs, old ruins of torture chambers and guardian quarters. Abandoned ever since the War of the Races. There are at least a dozen secret entries to the tunnels.” He sighed and released my arms. “At most, all we have is hearsay. It’s our word against one of the most revered reigning Pure Bloods. No one will ever believe us.”

With a deep sigh, I shrugged. The argument was over, and I knew I’d lost. “So what now?”

Marcus returned to our sides and hung up his mobile. His lips thinned with smile. “It time you both went home.”

Back upstairs we change our soiled clothes and quickly packed our belongings. I chucked out my ruined Vans with a sigh. Better them than me. Then I joined Kendrick in chugging down a few bottles of blood. It still wasn’t enough, but right now it’d have to do.