Centaur Legacy (16 page)

“He’s right here.”

“Put him on.”

“I’m going to put you on speaker,
okay?”

“Whatever, just make sure the schmuck
can hear me.” I cringed at Daniel’s “pet name” for Drake, but did
as he instructed.

“Go ahead, Daniel. We can both hear
you.”

“Drake, I’m a friend of Cami’s. She’s
in danger. Don’t let her out of your sight. Her brother Beau and
I’ll be in at 3 p.m. Don’t go anywhere, find a hotel and wait for
us. Understand?”

Drake’s voice was different, protective
and nearly hostile when he answered, “Daniel, she has chosen me.
Her life is my responsibility. She will be safe as long as I
breathe.”

Okay, that was weird. It didn’t even
sound like Drake’s voice coming from him.

“Yeah, whatever. Don’t go anywhere,
don’t do anything. You feel me? We’re on our way.”

A soft knock sounded at the door. I
motioned for Drake to answer it as I slipped my shirt back on. I
took Daniel off of speaker while Drake put his back on, too.
“Daniel, what’re you talking about?”

“I wish I knew, Cami. Just don’t go
anywhere. Wait for us.”

“Okay, we’ll stay at the hotel. See you
in a few hours.” Daniel hung up as Drake opened the door and
Phineas stood in the hallway, all smiles. “You two look much better
than you did last week.” It had only been a week since Phineas had
helped us escape from Zandra’s house on Friday. We were in Ireland
Sunday morning, and now five days later we were in South
Dakota.

It seemed so long ago and so much had
changed that I had a hard time wrapping my mind around it. I was
thrilled to see him even as my mother’s warning from the plane
replayed in my mind. The echo of her warning not to trust him was
loud and clear.

I walked slowly to the door. A part of
me was excited to see Phineas’s warm eyes and happy face, but a
part of me wondered why he would be here. Could my mother have been
wrong about him, too? As a ghost of her previous self, maybe she
was confused.

I shut off the silent argument in my
head: I didn’t understand Centaur politics, and I didn’t care what
herd Phineas was from. He was my friend. He was the reason I was
still alive. Just as I was ready to embrace him, Drake held up an
arm, blocking me from him, and asked, “Phineas, how did you find
us?”

“William told me you were on your way
back from Ireland.”

I gave Drake an angry look as his arm
was still held up as a barricade between Phineas and me.

Drake’s voice remained protective when
he answered, “Mr. Strayer did not know what hotel we were staying
in. How did you find us, Phineas?”

Phineas returned Drake’s angry stare.
“I called hotels looking for reservations.”

Drake nodded, then added suspiciously,
“We aren’t staying here under our real names. I’m going to ask one
more time: how did you find us?”

Phineas stammered for a second, “I
wanted to know. . . I was worried that. . . I just needed to know
that Camille was safe.”

“She is. She has chosen me. Cami is
under my protection. You will not touch my Centauride.” Phineas’s
eyes went wide. His expression turned angry as he looked from Drake
to me, then back to Drake.

That was two times in less than a few
minutes that Drake had told someone that I’d chosen him. I’d never
heard him say those words when he was betrothed to Bianca. Why
would he keep telling everyone that I’d chosen him? I was sure it
was a Centaur thing that I’d have to get used to, but it still felt
odd to hear, and I didn’t understand what was so significant that
he had to tell both Daniel and Phineas.

Drake heard my thoughts and
answered me back before I understood I was hearing his answer
resonate in my head. “
Anyone who I
perceive to be a threat is given a warning, Camille. I am your
Centaur.”

I could feel the confused look on my
face. How had Drake just heard my thoughts? I was still formulating
my question to Drake when Phineas held out a hand to
Drake.

Phineas acted as if he were
happy for us, but something in his tone gave me goose bumps –
and
not
in a good
way. “Congratulations, young Nash. That is quite an accomplishment:
coming back from the dead and being betrothed a second time, all in
less than a week. This information was not shared with me by Mr.
Strayer. Is her family aware of her choice?”

The tension between the two was
difficult to watch. I hated that they were talking about me as if I
weren’t right there. I cut in and asked, “Phineas, won’t you come
in?”

He ignored me, still pressing further
with his interrogation from the hallway. “If you are betrothed,
your families are unaware.” His tone was accusatory as he looked
between the two of us. “You seem to be staying in the same room
without an escort.”

Phineas turned his attention from both
of us to just me, “If I did not know better, Camille, I would think
this Centaur had taken advantage of your weakened state following
your imprisonment at your grandmother’s estate.”

I smiled, “No, Phineas. Drake has been
a perfect gentleman. Thank you for your concern.”

“Have you notified your parents of your
choice?”

I looked at Drake. He’d wanted me to do
that just minutes ago, but I hadn’t. We had both gotten distracted.
“I was just getting ready to make the call.”

“Then I’ve made it just in time.”
Phineas looked to his left as four large Centaurs filed through the
door. I could hear their attack on Drake before my eyes processed
what they were seeing.

Drake yelled, “Run, Cami! Run now!” I
stood in shock as the scene unfolded in front of me. Two of the
four men were holding Drake down, a third was landing well-placed
kicks and punches, and a fourth was standing to the side of the
commotion with a large syringe.

I saw Phineas’s face. He seemed to be
enjoying himself. I screamed, “Phineas, stop this! Stop it
now!”

Phineas’s amused look smoldered in his
eyes, “We’ll do just that, my queen. This will only take a minute.”
Phineas reached down to pick me up; his arms wrapped around me in a
vice, compressing my lungs and immobilizing my arms.

I wasn’t able to resist even a fraction
of an inch. My vision focused on Drake taking a worse beating than
I’d seen in any heavyweight title fight. The image of his body
slumping to the floor permanently etched itself in my memory. Tears
rolled down my cheeks as I screamed for them to stop.

I watched in horror, unable to aid
Drake. A conversation I’d had with Bianca came to me – she had told
me as a Chiron I would be able to move objects with my mind. I
concentrated with everything in me on a wooden desk off in the
corner. I visualized the desk floating through the air and crashing
into the Centaur who was still kicking Drake’s body on the
floor.

The table rose a few inches into the
air, suspended, as if asking for the kill command. I concentrated
hard, my sole focus on bringing the table down on the Centaur who
was inflicting the pain on Drake. I closed my eyes to heighten my
focus, and I heard a loud thump. When I opened my eyes, I was
shocked to see one of the legs of the desk had impaled the
attacking Centaur.

The man lay on the floor with blood
oozing around the table leg stuck through his chest. Phineas
shouted, “Camille! We’re here for your protection! Sebastian, get
over here with the needle, now!”

I didn’t want to believe that Phineas
could hurt me. I had thought of him as my own personal bodyguard
and trusted friend while at Zandra’s. I felt the prick of the
needle in my skin. I watched Drake’s lifeless body sprawled out on
the floor next to the Centaur with the table leg stuck in his
chest. I didn’t recognize my own voice when it screamed, “Drake!
Drake, wake up! Drake. . . help. . .” The room went completely
dark.

(Drake – Hotel near Crazy
Horse Mountain, SD)

Camille’s phone lay on the floor; the
ringing wouldn’t stop. I tried to open my eyes but could only see
slits of light through my swelled-shut eyelids. The ache in my body
was indescribable. When I tried to stand, I couldn’t. I rolled onto
my stomach and started crawling toward the ringing noise. I had
moved several feet in the right direction when the ringing stopped.
I put my head down, lying in the prone position, my body
threatening to lose consciousness again.

The ringing began again. I still
couldn’t see the phone, but I could hear that I was close. I fanned
my arms out, reaching in all directions, trying to get to it while
my legs pushed my body further in the right direction. I had it in
my hand, pressed the speaker button, and tried to say,
“Hello.”

“Cami? Cami, we’re here. Where are you
guys?” It was Daniel. Had it been five hours? She could be anywhere
by now. Daniel’s voice sounded frantic, “Cami? Hello?”

I tried to say, “It’s Drake,” but it
came out a garbled mess.

“Drake? Is that you? Where’s
Cami?”

I took a breath. They were here to
help. They knew she was in danger. I could taste the rusty flavor
of blood in my mouth and tried to open my eyes again. “They. . .
took. . . her.”

“Who got her? Where is she!?

I felt my body trying to succumb to the
dark again and fought with everything that I had. “Phineas took
her.”

“Who’s Phineas?” Daniel was screaming
into the phone. They’d been too late. I thought back to what had
happened. I sensed the warriors in the hallway before Phineas told
them to come in. I knew it was an ambush. I should have slammed the
door and gotten Cami out the window. I should have attacked them
instead of simply claiming her as mine. Phineas was right: without
her telling her family, I had no claim to her.

Why hadn’t I made her make that call?
None of this would have happened if I hadn’t let my desire for her
overcome me. This was my fault. I could have prevented the whole
thing.

Daniel’s voice was screaming at me over
the phone, but I only heard about every third word. I could feel my
vision clouding, dizziness and nausea wrapped together threatening
to knock me unconscious again. When Daniel paused after a string of
questions I couldn’t understand, I answered, “At Crazy Horse
Lodge.” The phone dropped back to the floor, and I surrendered to
the darkness.

*****

I heard Daniel’s voice absent of any
real concern, “Is he dead?”

Beau’s voice answered him, “No, he’s
alive, but not by much. His shoulder’s dislocated, his jaw’s
broken, and I don’t know how many broken ribs, maybe internal
bleeding, too.” I didn’t know if it had been five minutes or five
more hours since Daniel’s call. The two were talking to each other,
unaware that I was regaining consciousness.

“Who did this?”

“I don’t know. I’ve known Drake Nash
since he was a little kid. He doesn’t have an enemy in the
world.”

“There’s a big bloodstain over here.
That couldn’t have come from him. You think it was
Cami?”

“No. That much blood, they would have
left her. Whoever did this to him wanted him dead, probably thought
he was dead.”

I tried to take a deep breath, but it
hurt too badly. I managed to get out, “Not dead. They took
Cami.”

Beau’s voice was loud and close to my
face, “Drake? Drake, you can hear us? Drake, what
happened?!”

“Phineas took her.”

“Who’s Phineas?”

“Friend of your dad.”

This time Daniel screeched, “I told you
your dad was a piece of shit! I hate that guy. Call your dad and
ask him where Cami is!”

Beau didn’t hesitate. I heard the phone
dialing. I needed to stay conscious. My left eye could open further
than my right. I winced from the light in the room but stared
through the pain, so I could look at the two standing to my side.
“Dad, it’s Beau. Cami’s in trouble.” Why wouldn’t he put it on
speaker? “South Dakota. Daniel and I just flew in. We came to Cami
and Drake’s hotel, and it looks like an earthquake hit their room.
Someone beat up Drake pretty badly. He says it was Phineas.” More
silence, then, “I’ll ask. Drake, you’re sure it was
Phineas?”

I nodded, making eye contact with Beau
with my one almost good eye. “He’s sure, Dad.” I heard Beau take in
a breath, “Sometime in the last seven hours. We called them from
San Diego before we took off and everything was fine. When we got
here, Cami was gone and Drake was bloody and passed out.” More of a
pause, then I heard, “I’ll put it to his ear.”

I heard Will’s voice when Beau put the
phone up to my ear, “Drake, it’s Will. Can you tell me what
happened?”

It took all the strength I had, but if
I didn’t use it on this conversation, I might never get Cami back.
“Phineas came to the hotel with four other Centaurs. I didn’t
recognize the other four. She told Phineas that she chose me.” I
needed to get that information out there. According to our
traditions, he had to hear it from Cami, but with the
circumstances, he would take my word for it. A Centauride’s choice
trumps everything, and Will would be forced to devote all his
resources to help me find her instead of conducting his own search
and possibly leaving me out of it. “He stopped her from calling you
and then knocked her out with a drug.”