22
MY ANGER AT HAVING MY
EMOTIONS SHAMELESSLY manipulated faded quickly. As soon as we left
the room Matthias had been imprisoned in, I got my priorities
straight again. Also memories of what happened earlier at The
Silver Cross and what Alex wanted me to tell Matthias kept
replaying in my head.
“I need to tell you
something,” I said as we quickly moved down the tunnel toward the
rope ladder leading back to the basement. “It’s about . . .
Alex.”
Matthias stopped
walking. “I know what Kristoff wanted you to do. He saw Alex as a
threat now that he’s been awakened.”
I nodded. “Kristoff
sent me to his nightclub earlier tonight.”
His expression
tensed. “Is he dead?”
I clasped my hands in
front of me to stop them from shaking and nodded. Matthias needed
to know this. Maybe this wasn’t exactly the ideal time to tell him,
but if something went wrong I was afraid there might not be another
time. “He knew why I was there—someone tipped him off about my
blood, but . . . but he bit me anyway. I—I tried to stop him. I’m
so sorry.”
He didn’t speak for a
moment.
A big part of me
worried about how he’d take this news. My blood had killed someone
Matthias had cared deeply for at one time, someone he likely felt a
great deal of guilt about. I wondered if he’d been there when Alex
was dragged out into the sunshine, watching from a safe, dark place
as he extracted his vengeance.
I’d seen many sides
of Matthias. It was very possible he could be that cruel if he felt
justified in what he was doing due to a perceived
betrayal.
“I hadn’t seen him in
years,” he said quietly.
“He—he wanted me to
tell you something.”
Matthias looked at
me, his expression grim. “What?”
“That he forgives
you. And that he still has faith in everything you do.” I didn’t
elaborate. I think Matthias would know all too well what was being
forgiven.
Matthias squeezed his
eyes shut for a moment. “There are very few things I regret in my
long life, Jillian. What happened between me and Alex is one of
those things. A dying man’s forgiveness doesn’t ease my guilt very
much about the choices I’ve had to make then or now. Sometimes
there’s only one path that can be traveled, even if it’s a rocky
one.”
He started walking
again. I wasn’t going to make him keep talking about Alex. I wasn’t
that cruel.
No one stopped us. It
felt as if the entire house was abandoned. It was eerie, but I
pushed aside my uneasiness enough to get this done.
“It’s nearly
sunrise,” Matthias said. “You’ll have to leave without me. Take
Sara and I’ll meet up with you when I can.”
There was no room for
argument in his voice. You couldn’t argue with
sunlight.
I nodded. “All
right.”
“We need to remove
her from this house before Kristoff has the opportunity to hand her
over to the new leader of the Amarantos.”
I looked at him with
surprise. “That has to be Kristoff’s goal in killing Alex. Getting
a new leader in place who doesn’t hate his guts.”
“I’m sure he has
someone positioned to take over. And what better way to buy his
allegiance than with a bribe of immortality?”
I really didn’t like
the sound of that.
I scanned the
hallways looking for Jade and Noah, but didn’t see them. We kept
moving. Finding the room Sara was being kept in took a few tries,
but the crib in a small room near the front of the expansive house
was a good tip-off. The vampire nanny snoozed in a chair by the
door. As we opened it, she woke, leaping to her feet to stand in
our way and baring her fangs.
“The baby’s
sleeping,” she hissed. “And you’re not Kristoff.”
Matthias frowned.
“How can you tell?”
“Kristoff isn’t
wearing a blood-drenched shirt tonight.”
Matthias looked down
at himself. “Good point.”
She launched herself
at him, but he easily knocked her to the side. She hit her head on
the wall and fell to a heap on the floor.
I eyed him. “You do
look exactly like him. It’s freaky.”
His lips curved. “One
thing I can never fault Kristoff for is his good
looks.”
“Right. Or his
brother’s extreme vanity.” I moved toward the crib and was
immediately relieved to see Sara sleeping there safe and sound,
wrapped in a thin yellow blanket. I carefully picked her up and
held her against my chest.
“Here she is,” I
whispered. “You can finally take a look at your
daughter.”
Matthias sent another
fervent glance out the open door as I drew closer to him. Finally
he gazed down at the face of his daughter, and he drew in a breath.
It was the most honest reaction I think I’d ever witnessed from
him.
“She’s as beautiful
as I’d imagined she’d be.”
“She’ll be a
heartbreaker one day.”
He smiled and touched
my arm. “Please keep her safe for me. I’ll be able to find both of
you through our bond.”
I nodded. “I’ll have
to stock up on baby formula and diapers again. Walmart here I
come.”
She opened her pale
gray eyes and yawned. So adorable. And to think, I’d never really
given much thought to having children before, but she was pretty
darn—
Just then, Sara
screwed up her face and started to cry, a sharp sound that cut
through the silence of the dark house like a knife.
I winced at the
earsplitting noise. Babies weren’t cut out to be stealthy escape
artists.
“Go now,” Matthias
commanded.
I didn’t argue. With
a last look at him and the painful knowledge that we were running
out of time to escape undetected, I hurried down the hall and then
another. I had to find the room my nieces were in. I couldn’t just
walk out the door with Sara and leave them behind.
They were nowhere to
be found. My chest tightened and I tried to hold back the panic and
frustration overflowing in me.
“Where are they?” I
whispered, trying to will the baby in my arms to stop
crying.
All I had to do was
find Meg and Julie and I was marching out that front door into the
early morning light. I passed a grandfather clock that confirmed it
was a quarter to six. The morning after what was, quite possibly,
the longest night of my life.
So close to being
free again I could taste it.
I turned a corner to
find Declan standing there.
I gulped a mouthful
of air, and tried to stop my heart from beating so wildly in my
chest. “Oh, thank God. Declan, you have to help me find the
girls.”
He looked frustrated.
“You should have tried to be quieter, Jill.”
I looked down at
Sara. “Babies don’t take direction very well.”
Out of the corner of
my eye I saw Jade approach from the far end of the hallway, her
arms stretched in front of her. “There’s my baby. Darling
baby.”
I turned my attention
from the crazy baby-loving dhampyr to Declan. “I have to get out of
here before Kristoff knows—”
“He already knows
everything. He commanded me to bring you to see him for a private
meeting.” His face was expressionless.
“He commanded you,” I repeated, feeling
sick.
“I told you what that
means.”
All too well, I was
afraid. “You said you can’t disobey him.”
“That’s
right.”
I looked over my
shoulder.
“Looking for your
soul mate?” Declan asked dryly. “I easily knocked him out a minute
ago and the guards took him away. There is a hidden camera in the
tunnels downstairs. Kristoff saw everything.”
This wasn’t
happening. I’d been so close to getting out of here. Declan
couldn’t be the one to stop me—he was supposed to help me. “Did you
know there was a camera there?”
“I do
now.”
I looked into his
face, desperately searching for some sort of signal that he was
just faking this like he’d done earlier. “No, Declan. Please. You
have to fight this.”
He shook his head,
his expression bleak. “I can’t. I have to do what he says. He asked
me to bring you to him and I’m compelled to obey. Give the baby to
Jade.”
“Your father wants to
give this baby to the new leader of the Amarantos Society. And
you’re just going to let him do that?” My words twisted into
anger.
He grasped my upper
arm so tightly I flinched. “Hand Jade the baby or you might drop
her. I know you don’t want that to happen.”
Of course I didn’t.
Reluctantly, I handed her the baby. Jade cooed at her and rocked
her gently in her arms. The next moment, Sara finally stopped
crying.
Maternal instinct.
Sara seemed to like the crazy dhampyr. Go figure.
Declan wasn’t quite
as gentle as he dragged me down the hall to see the vampire
king.