Becoming a Legend (26 page)

Arianna followed the three men back into the house. They all filed Michael Seeger’s room in front of her. Arianna hesitated. Would she still be a target if she were the night human in the legend? Or would that make everything worse? Devin may not want to tell her the details, but that didn’t stop Arianna from wondering. Would she have the power to keep everyone safe?

Michael Seeger sat tied to the bedpost. As Gabriel said, he couldn’t break through the bindings if he’d tried, but now he was pretending to be asleep. Arianna and Andrew, with their baku senses, could tell he wasn’t asleep. Sleeping prey smelled different than when it was awake, and baku could only feed on the sleeping. Devin walked over to Michael and tapped his face. Michael continued to pretend to be sleeping. Turner tried next, a little harder, but Michael still didn’t move.

“
How about I feed on him?” Andrew suggested so that Michael would understand that he knew Michael was awake.

Michael
’s head immediately snapped up at the suggestion, and he glared at Andrew. His stare turned more into hatred as Andrew laced Arianna’s fingers in his own and pulled her to sit in a nearby chair. Devin nodded his approval. Arianna wasn’t doing well on her feet, and he didn’t need her passing out at this point. Her skill entering minds could still be needed. Though she didn’t want to admit it, running through the woods had tired her out. Arianna let herself be pulled onto Andrew’s lap, but found immediately the mistake. He was still shirtless and any skin contact made her lose her train of thought. Devin noticed this as well and grabbed a shirt off a nearby pile and threw it to Andrew. Arianna couldn’t tell if it was jealously or the need to use her powers that made Devin notice.

“
We have a few questions for you,” Devin began, but Michael wouldn’t take his gaze away from Arianna sitting with Andrew. Andrew slipped his arm around her waist once he got the shirt on. Arianna leaned back and enjoyed his warmth.

“
You’d let filth like that touch our princess? Do you not care now that Randolph is gone?” he spat out at Devin with vengeance. Michael was flexing his power as much as he could and pulling against the bindings. He was still not powerful enough to break the ropes. The last of his blood would be used up soon as he didn’t have enough to even make it back to the base after the fight he got caught in. His decision to try to appear powerful was a stupid mistake.

Devin ignored him and said again,
“We need you to answer a few questions. Are you willing to cooperate or not? We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Michael continued to glare at Andrew. Andrew
didn’t anger, but he held the stare. Letting go a little, Andrew flexed his power as Gabriel had done at Arianna’s birthday party. The release startled Michael, who quickly broke his gaze. Andrew was much more powerful than anyone had known. Michael knew then that there was no way he could even attempt to intimidate the baku holding Arianna. Arianna placed her hand on Andrew’s chest, and he reigned in his power to normal level. Arianna smiled and leaned back against him.

“
I’ll cooperate,” Michael replied dejectedly.

‘
Michael, Michael, are you all right?’
A female voice came into Arianna’s head. Arianna tried not to show what she heard.

‘
Mom, I’m fine,’
Michael answered.

‘I’m
going to get your father to send someone to you right away. He’s being so unreasonable,’
the lady replied.

‘
Mom, I said I’m fine,’
Michael said a second time.

“
We will start the question with: who are you communicating with and where are they?” Devin asked. Michael was a weaker night human and thus the limits to his communication mentally would be within miles. That was too close for Devin to like, thinking that Seeger was nearby.

Michael snapped his head up to look at Devin. Devin stood as proud as
Randolph always did, but he didn’t even have a drop of night human blood in him. Devin was just a measly day human, breakable. Even so, Devin was a threat. He was better than even some of the purebreds in the Randolph clan. Michael knew enough to not underestimate him.

“
And I’d advise you not to lie to us,” Devin added. Michael had considered this. Would Devin really be able to know if he lied?

Michael looked around the room. All the faces were looking at him, Turner, Thomas, Andrew, Devin and Arianna. Suddenly Michael stopped looking. Molina wasn’t with them. She was the only one that would support his lies and keep Devin from actually following through on threats. Michael began to sweat knowing he wasn’t in a good position. His only ally was gone

“My mother,” Michael replied. Arianna nodded discreetly to Devin. Michael didn’t even notice.

“
And where are your parents right now?” Devin continued.

“
Walking Station,” Michael replied. Something about Devin made Michael know not to cross him today.

Arianna hear
d the typing in the background of Devin’s headphones. Mori was listening and now would be tracking them. Arianna hadn’t even noticed that Devin had put it on. Devin was always prepared and two steps ahead. Arianna was glad that, no matter her feelings toward him, love or hate at this point, he was on her team.

“
Why are you all out here at Walking Station? There’s not much cover for daylight hours around here,” Devin asked as Mori continued to type.

“
We were sent to protect the borders,” Michael replied proudly. It was actually the first time his father even allowed him to participate in the clan. Lord Seeger was more of a leader than a doer. “I was doing my job.”

“
More like volunteering to do his job,” Mori answers to Devin only, but Arianna heard it also. “Seeger volunteered to watch the borders right after you left.”

‘
Were they looking for me?’
Arianna asked silently across the miles to Mori.

“
No Ari, they didn’t even know you were gone. Our plan worked well. They still think you’re sick and sitting in your apartment. This might have been the plan all along. If you were sick, you wouldn’t know what they were up to.” Mori kept clicking in the background. “I figure they are up to something as per usual.”

“
The Seeger family is into clan security now?” Turner asked, not privy to the conversation between Devin, Mori, and Arianna.

‘
I highly doubt it,
’ Andrew replied. He held tighter to Arianna as Michael’s gaze came back to her. His gaze went up and down her body before resting on the arm comfortable around her waist. Out of fear, Michael tried his best to suppress the anger welling inside of him. He didn’t make it a habit to confront such a foe without his father around. For now, all he could do was glare at Andrew and try to will Andrew’s hands off of Arianna.

“
So this mess you’ve made was a security detail?” Devin asked. Michael nodded. “Explain what happened.”

“
I was out on patrol last night. As I was heading back to the base, I heard a noise further out in the field. My father told me to come back, but I didn’t. I knew that my job was to keep it safe for everyone in the clan. Therefore, I went to investigate. I found that vrykolakas hiding on our land. He attacked me as soon as he saw me.” Michael recounted as much of the story he could lying to them as little as possible. He left out the part where he attacked first after the vrykolakas asked for safe harbor and that the vrykolakas was a hybrid that they’d been tracking.

‘
What is a vrykolakas?’
Arianna asked Andrew. It was a completely new term to her.

‘
Another type of night human. I’ll explain more after we’re done with him,’
Andrew replied, not letting down his guard even a bit as he conversed with Arianna. Michael made him nervous. The way he looked at Arianna wasn’t normal. He looked like he would start worshiping her if she let him.

“
Were you on Randolph land or Grace land when you were attacked?” Devin asked for both his and Mori’s sake. Mori was tracking everything now and looking for the residues from the fight. “Could you have been on vrykolakas land?”

“
I’m not sure,” Michael replied. It was the first statement he made that was actually completely true.

‘
Sorry Devin. Their residues are a mess. They were all over the place. Randolph land, Grace land, and Katsulas land. I don’t think we can pinpoint an exact start to this fight. It will be his word against the other and no proof to back it,’
Mori explained to Devin and Arianna.

“
Could you have been on the neutral land in between?” Turner suggested. They wanted Michael to be on the Grace land and thus the vrykolakas declared an intruder. Even if he’d wanted sanctuary from the rising sun, he would be considered a trespasser on Grace and Randolph lands. Sanctuary had to be asked for on neutral land.

“
Possibly, but I wasn’t going to take the chance that someone was sneaking onto our land. We need to keep Lady Arianna safe. That’s our duty.” Michael was solemn in his reply.

TWENTY-TWO

Michael moved carefully
, secretly testing the bindings while continuing to talk with Devin and Turner to pinpoint the exact location Michael was guarding. He was still bound, which limited his movements, but something else was hindering him. Arianna stood and curiously moved closer. Both boys they rescued stunk from blood, but neither was showing any openly-visible cuts. Michael had his shirt still wrapped around him as he had done to shield himself from the sunlight. He was tenderly hiding something in his chest area.

“
You’re hurt,” Arianna said, interrupting his talk with Devin. Though they were no longer treating him as hostile, he was still bound. Arianna stopped only a foot away from him. She didn’t fear him moving as she could now tell that there wasn’t much he could do in his state. Andrew also could tell this, yet he still stayed right behind her with his hand on her back. No matter what, Michael Seeger would always be the enemy.

“It’s
getting better now that I’m out of the light,” he whispered. His awe of Arianna kept him from truly complaining.

Arianna reached down and moved the shirt out of the way across his stomach. A large gash ran from one hip to the other. Skin had begun to knit back together
. There was no fresh blood, but it was far from being healed. Arianna moved closer and traced her finger over the wound to gauge its depth. Michael sucked in a breath from a mix of pain and enjoyment. He was ecstatic that she was touching him. The gaping claw marks were unusual to her. They weren’t the size of anything she’d seen before. They were much smaller than baku claws, yet bigger than those of a dearg-dul. Arianna leaned back and took in the scents around her. The vrykolakas, as they called him, was a dearg-dul night human even though his scent a bit off. He smelled more like the girl and guy she had met over a week ago at the park.

“
Does it still hurt?” she asked as she carefully examined the wound.

“
Not now,” he replied, enamored with her.

“
What leaves marks like this?” she asked Devin. “This is neither a dearg-dul nor a baku.”

“
He was a mutant,” Michael replied, shutting his eyes to enjoy her touch. Arianna pulled her hand back, afraid she was causing him pain. “No, don’t stop.” His eye flipped back open. The pain instantly came back after she removed her hand. “It doesn’t hurt. I promise.”

Arianna sensed more pain
and distress from him now than she did when she touched him. Arianna put her hand back so that her fingers were barely touching him. Michael relaxed again. The pain leaving wasn’t real. A cut that deep would continue to hurt until it healed. Her hand on him was doing nothing to heal him; it was just making him forget about it. Arianna would need to do more, as she wasn’t going to sit touching him until his body fully healed.

“
We came here to find the mutants. Our sources said they would try to get through the border here. My father is searching to try to find out how they can sustain their mutant form.” Michael began spilling his secrets, but didn’t seem to care as long as Arianna was touching him. “And I came to make sure we don’t have anyone who is not of our clan making it into the cities.”