King Hall (44 page)

Snubbing him apparently wasn’t a deterrent, because he still asked, “Lily, where have you decided your home base will be? Jack mentioned three different locations, Pearl says she’s undecided, and Ezra’s mentioned five.” His head cocked so that he came in my line of sight, and Pearl’s eyes were sympathetic. Guess that was what he had been hounding her about.

“Possibly New York,” I explained, then altered my gaze to Pearl. “A minute, please?”

“
Possibly
…” Cahal purred, contemplative in his regard. “The latest any Prodigy has ever picked was a month before graduation and yet, none of you have a solid answer.” Another head cock into my field of vision. “Do you not think that unusual?”

“No,” I stated, a little heat entering my tone. “But, I’m sure you do.”

“Meaning?”

Taking a deep breath, I remembered what Ezra had said about him. “Nothing. Nothing at all.” I smiled sweetly before physically steering Pearl away.

Close to my ear, Pearl hissed, “He’s terrifying.”

“He’s also a Vampire and just heard you say that,” I muttered, taking her to where Jack and Ezra stood talking quietly with their backs to everyone. I asked them, “What’s going on?”

Jack made room for Pearl and I, and he whispered quietly, “After this thing’s over, the plan’s to bail. Have some time off before dinner tonight.” His gaze was profound.

So we could talk privately about our plans for our home base issue. “My Hummer’s where it’s normally parked.”

Ezra pointed at me. “We were hoping so. We can leave our cars here. Ride together.”

Pearl glanced over her shoulder, then back to us. “The beach?”

Silently, we nodded. The beach was private if the guards stayed at a distance.

That decided, Jack glanced over at the group of Kings and parents, then glared at Ezra, griping with a hiss, “Your dad is like a bloodhound.”

“And he can hear you,” Ezra and I muttered as one.

“Oh.” Jack rubbed his chin. “Right.” His head cocked. “I always forget about that. What’s that like, being able to hear everyone?”

Snickering, and with a quick glance at Ezra, then back to Jack, I whispered, “He wears earplugs to bed.”

“
How would you know that?
” Cahal asked softly at my ear.

I jumped, my heart skipping a beat as I banged against Pearl, but…he wasn’t behind me. He was clear across the room, speaking with King Fergus. My friends stared at me peculiarly, obviously not hearing what I had. Moving my wide-eyed gaze to Ezra, I whispered fiercely, “What type of powers does your dad have?”

Ezra blinked slowly, and then peered across the room to his dad. Stared. Spring green eyes flared briefly, dimly, and I was sure that if I hadn’t physically seen his mouth move, I wouldn’t have heard his voice. My mind knew it should be there, so I listened. It was quiet, like the gentlest of breezes, but ricocheted before me, after me, then farther past me, bouncing across the room until it hit its intended destination. “
Leave her alone.
”

His dad’s lips curved but he still held his conversation, evidently receiving the same treatment he had given me. It appeared he found it amusing.

“What was that?” Pearl asked, staggered, rubbing her ears.

“That was sick, man.” Jack held up a fist.

Ezra fist bumped him, shrugging. “It’s just an old form of communication.”

“I don’t like it.” My wolf growled quietly as I stared at his dad. “So don’t do that again, please.” The last bit was directed to Cahal, and I got an immediate answer.

“
It’s so much more entertaining, don’t you agree?
” Cahal’s voice purred at my ear, and I jolted. “
Besides, you never answered my question
.”

I still didn’t. If he wasn’t going to respect me, then I wasn’t even going to respond with a
lie
, much less the
truth
. He got no answer.

I lurched again, hearing him chuckle at my ear, and turned to Ezra, whose mouth was moving and I only caught the tail end of him saying in that funky way, “…
affecting your hearing? I said to leave her the hell alone
.”

My voice was a mere breath. “I think he’s getting us back for all that dancing.”

His eyes were narrowed. “I know he is.”

Abruptly, Antonio charged into the room, the door flying wide open to hit the wall. He didn’t seem to notice, his nose buried in an old brown leather book of sorts. He had changed his clothes, too. He no longer wore his suit, but now, a pair of black cargos, a black t-shirt, and black boots, and his hair was tied back at his nape, his handsome features showing in sharp relief. His ensemble was completed with the two huge black duffels over his shoulders, their straps like an “X” over his chest. I had never seen him appear quite like this.

Absorbed and fervent and chilling, all at once.

The room went quiet as he trekked across the floor, only peering up from his book when he stood in front of the window I had broken with my uncle earlier. He stared out of it for a few moments, and shook his head slowly, his eyes closing. He whispered, “It’s time.”

Swiftly, Cahal weaved through the motionless gathering to stand next to him. “For?”

Antonio’s eyes opened, and he shut the book. He lifted the duffels off his shoulders and let them fall heavily to the floor with a glance to Cahal, again whispering, “It’s time.” He turned from him, murmured a word, and the book in his hand glowed golden. Walking to Vivian, he held it out. “Take this. Keep it safe. Know that anyone who tries to read it will directly die.”

Her startled, a green gaze flew from Antonio to Cahal.

Bizarrely, Cahal was unbuttoning his suit jacket, but he nodded once.

She took the proffered book, holding it gingerly, as if it might bite her.

“What’s going on?” Mrs. Jonas asked, watching, like all of us, as Cahal finished removing his jacket, then began slipping his dress shoes and socks off.

Good question.

One that Antonio and Cahal ignored.

“Do they have time to leave?” Cahal probed, rolling his shirt sleeves up.

A glance at his watch. “The clock chimes twice.”

Everyone in the room peered to the wall clock with the swinging pendulum, directly next to the broken window, even though I was pretty sure none of us had any clue what Antonio was talking about. It was one minute until two o’clock.

Cahal inhaled harshly, gazing from Vivian to Ezra with what almost looked like a dose of distress. His eyes slammed back to Antonio. “How many uninvited?”

Antonio squatted and unzipped the duffels, removing
guns
from their depths. Lots and
lots
of frigging guns. He whispered, “Too many.”

Cahal sucked in another large breath. “How many casualties?”

“Too many,” Antonio whispered once more, giving hand weapons to the Kings, who took them mutely, even if they were looking back and forth at each other with blank expressions.

The clock on the wall chimed twice.

“Is something going to happen?” Jack asked quickly, no longer able to stay mute. “If so, we need to know.” He pointed toward the window. “Our mates are out there.”

“There’s no time.” Antonio gazed at Ezra and me, then murmured softly, “Catch them.”

An explosion rocked the floor beneath my feet, shaking the whole building.

Heart in my throat, I instantly crouched, like everyone else in the office.

With the exception of Pearl and Jack.

Pearl doubled over, holding her stomach and chest, shrieking piercingly.

Jack grabbed his head and chest, arching, bellowing brutally.

They
fell
.

Without thought, I went to my knees, the floor still vibrating under me, and thrust my arms out, catching Pearl just as Ezra dove and caught Jack. They were both unconscious.

Frantically, I shook Pearl — the sounds of another explosion and the frightened cries from outside harsh in the air — trying to wake her, but it didn’t help. My breath seized in my lungs, unable to get oxygen over the fear that my best friends’ lives were in jeopardy. I rapidly studied her stomach and chest where she had been holding. There was no blood soaking through her gown. Nothing looked wrong at all. Hands trembling, a sickening feeling began to override my terror, and I ripped into her black silk robe the smallest bit right at her belly button.

“
Goddammit!
” I roared, patting her flesh repeatedly, trying to make it come back. “No, goddammit!” It didn’t reappear. My eyes tearing up, my gaze slammed to Ezra, and I shouted over the chaos, “Check Jack’s hand!”

Ezra was staring at Pearl’s unblemished belly — no mate mark — and he inhaled sharply, turning to his other best friend on his lap, and even as another explosion rocked the building we were in, the floor shaking violently under us, he slowly lifted Jack’s hand and turned it over, spreading his slack fingers wide. It was gone. Jack’s mate mark was gone.

Nikki and Gideon were both dead.

Tears instantly cut unrelenting, brutal paths down my cheeks. I stared at my best friends. When they woke…
Oh, God.
I didn’t want them to go through the gut-wrenching agony. Not them. Not my best friends.

Lifting Pearl protectively, I placed her on my lap. I rocked her softly. Sobbing on her golden hair, I rubbed her back gently, and my blurry vision found Ezra.

He was doing much the same, holding Jack’s back against his chest with his hand over his best friend’s heart, staring down at it. In slow increments, he gazed up at me. His spring green eyes held the same grief for them as mine did.

Our sorrow was deep for our late mates, but time had muted it somewhat. Jack and Pearl’s anguish was going to be so new and horrifying and profound that they would willingly drop into the bottomless pit of hell to escape it, just as it had tortured us.

“
Wait!”
Antonio’s voice boomed throughout the room, deep and commanding. Furiously blinking through misery-filled tears, I saw the Kings and Cahal on their feet, rushing toward the door with weapons in hand. From the ground, Antonio thundered, “
One more! Get down!
”

Cahal stalled, and then moved with Vampire speed, blurring, when the Kings didn’t listen, knocking each one to the ground and diving on top of their bodies haphazardly.

The next second, an explosion rocked the building so fiercely I screamed, holding Pearl tight as I fell on my side, Ezra landing next to me, protecting Jack as I was Pearl. The blast was so close it hurt my ears, ringing in pulses, and I watched as Ezra’s mouth opened wide.

He roared in my face, covering his own, much more powerfully sensitive, ears.

Reaching out a shaking hand, I covered one of his hands with mine, trying to help him, and gritted my teeth as the explosion reverberated in jarring shocks. Dust flew into the room, clouding the space deep gray. I choked on it and tried to breathe shallowly, but that didn’t offer any relief. Only when the dust started billowing out through the broken window was I able to breathe again, my lungs and eyes heavy and burning.

Ezra coughed as harshly as I did, and he lifted my hand I had laid on his, holding it between us as we peered around from the floor. The Kings and Cahal were beginning to rise, Mrs. Jonas and Vivian were watching from the ground under Mrs. Jonas’s desk, Antonio was lifting to his knees and digging through the duffels, and Pearl and Jack’s parents were slowly crawling to us. They had been on the far side of the room when the first explosion went off and had been trying to make their way here ever since, eyes steadfast on their children.

Antonio stopped their progress and started handing each of them weapons, shouting orders, “Go with the Kings. They’ll need your help.” They looked to Pearl and Jack, and Antonio barked, “They aren’t dead! Unconscious. Not dead. Go!”

They nodded when shots were fired outside on the lawn, adding even more screams.

The Kings and Cahal stared at the doorway. Outside of it, what had once been the hallway was completely demolished. It appeared like part of the building had collapsed.

King Venclaire said to no-one in particular, “There were heartbeats out there.”

As one, the Kings quickly nodded their thanks to Cahal for saving their lives.

Cahal shook his head, and pointed at Antonio, who had ordered it in the first place.

“Time to go!” Antonio barked, pointing at the broken window. “Our exit.”

Curses of rage and screams of suffering were growing nearer, and everyone holding a weapon took a fortifying pause before they started piling through the window. Antonio waited until the last one was gone before he turned to us where we were laying Pearl and Jack in a corner of the office farthest away from the window and any stray bullets.

My heart was racing like mad, scared shitless, and I was heartbroken for my best friends, but there were Mysticals dying out there. My numb shock of this actuality had worn off. It was time to act. To fight.

Antonio moved in our direction. He kissed my forehead, wiping away my drying tears on my dust-gray face. “Don’t go anywhere, Lil. Stay here. Get the gun I gave you this morning, and shoot anyone who enters through that window. Understand?” His voice was quiet, but it held a certain finality you didn’t argue with.

But, still… “I can help,” I jabbed a finger at the window, “out there.”

He bent, face level with mine. “You leave, and Jack and Pearl might die in this room.”

My lips pursed, but I gradually nodded. He was an Elder. In this situation, I trusted the Elder. Plus, he had never steered me wrong before.

He straightened, turning to Ezra, and stared him down. “I once asked you if you were good enough.” Cries of torment flooded the air outside. “You never answered.”

Ezra’s voice was void of emotion. “I’m good enough.” A simple statement of fact.

“Time tells all,” Antonio whispered, before setting a hand on Ezra’s shoulder. He peered at me, but tightened his grip on Ezra. “Do not shoot us. Only anyone that enters through that window.”

I nodded once.

Antonio’s eyes glowed, and they disappeared.

I blinked.

Antonio had just taken Ezra by means of his vanishing act. Transversing. I knew they were outside in the action while I had been left in here. My jaw clenched, but a quick glance to Jack and Pearl and I knew I was in the right place.