The Seventh Immortal (Hearts of Amaranth #1) (8 page)

“
You want him to go away, don't you?”

“
I...” Paul was now circling around the side of the
building, trying to find another way in. The front doors were
locked, on order from Christa. He looked so lost. “I'll never see
him again. If I let go of him now--”

“
Then you've already killed him,” Thomas
snorted. “If you cannot control your selfishness, you will never
control the
vox dei
.”

As if on cue, Paul found a door that wasn't
locked. Kait's heart started to race. The police outside began to
move to that side of the building. At least for the moment, they
didn't have a reason to shoot him.

Grant would find a reason. He would use the
vox dei
to convince the
police under his command that Paul had a weapon, or that he was a
threat, or just that the world needed him dead. It didn't matter
what suggestion Grant would use. The police would follow it, just
as surely as Paul had followed Kait downtown.

There was only one thing that Grant wasn't counting on. He
wasn't the only one with the
vox dei.

Kait rushed to the door to meet Paul before
he could come inside. Thomas reached out to stop her, but he was
too slow. She ran across the foyer of the building and pulled the
door open. Then she grabbed Paul and spun him around. She tried to
position him behind her, so that she was the once facing the who
were moving into position.

“
We're unarmed!” Kait shouted as loud as
she could. She could feel the strange tingling sensation between
her eyes and she knew she was using the
vox dei
. The police would hear her words and
they would believe her. Throwing her hands above her head, she
tried to surrender. “We don't want to hurt anyone! We just want to
go home.”

A few of the police officers near the edge
of the street lowered their weapons. It was working. Surely, Thomas
would not approve of this strategy. He had no left her much choice.
She didn't want to push Paul away. Paul was the closest thing she
had in this world to a friend, even if she barely knew him.

“
What are you doing?” Paul muttered. “Is this about the
Mayor? I thought you said you killed him, but he was on a news
broadcast just a few minutes ago.”

Kait turned and narrowed her eyes. “What am
I
doing?” she said.
“What are you doing here? Did you follow me?”

“
You just left me at the restaurant. I had to see where you
were going.”

I had to see.
Kait wanted to be sick. She'd compelled Paul to
come after her. Just because she wanted to see him, just because
she liked him...

Kait grabbed his arm. “You're in danger,”
she said. “I don't have time to explain, but it should be really
fucking obvious if you just open your eyes.”

“
The police?”

“
They aren't here to protect you. They're after
me.”

Paul's eyes went wide. It was like he never
thought to consider that the cops were a danger to him. He'd walked
through their blockade without a fear in the world. “They...
They're after you?”

“
I told you: I shot the mayor.”

“
You said that you
killed
the
mayor.”

“
I also said that I didn't have time to explain.”

Behind Kait, the police officers readied their weapons
again. They were confused. They only had a vague idea of why they
surrounded One Metropolitan Square, and Kait's use of the
vox dei
left them
ill-at-ease.

“
Stop right there!” a voice shouted. “Don't move or we'll
shoot.”

Kait spun around and faced them. “You don't want to shoot,”
she hissed. Her voice cut through the night and buried itself deep
in the minds of the police officers surrounding the building. It
was the first time she'd ever
intentionally
used the
vox dei
to command someone, and she was shocked by
the result.

Almost in unison, all of the cops lowered
their weapons. It was like they were hypnotized. Kait had them
completely under her control. All she had to do was speak.

Turning her attention back to Paul, she tried to reign in
her seductive power. She didn't want to control him in the same
way. He was her friend. He deserved better than that. Still,
she needed him to
leave so that she could handle this without risking his
life.

“
Go!” Kait hissed. “Get out of here, while you still have a
chance.”

Paul gulped. Sweat was beading up around his forehead. Kait
couldn't tell whether she'd used the
vox dei
on him, or if he was merely frightened by
the situation. Either way, he wanted to leave One Metropolitan
Square. Unfortunately, it was not so simple.

A trembling voice came from the darkness
beyond the police cars. Several of the streetlights across the
street were burnt out, allowing the police chief to hide under the
cover of night He stepped forward, onto the road, and smiled at
Kait.

Grant L'Enfant might have been a handsome
man, if not for his monstrous eye. The left side of his face was
permanently swollen, like a healing injury. His eye was pure white,
save for a few crimson blood vessels running along the surface.

As he spoke, Kait could feel his presence in her head. He
was attempting to control her. Just like she'd accidentally done to
Thomas, he tried to manipulate her with the
vox dei
. And just like with Thomas, it
didn't work. It just made Kait angrier.

“
Let us go!” Kait shouted. “I'm not going to decide anything
tonight.”

Grant continued to approach the building,
staring at Kait with his hollow eye. “You are so confused,” he
replied. “Stand down. Come with me. And I will teach you how the
world works.”

Paul snapped out of his daze. He stepped
towards Grant, glaring at him. “She doesn't have to go with you if
she doesn't want to!”

A smile spread across Grant's face. He
turned to look at Paul, but never addressed him. His attention was
not divided. He still focused entirely on Kait, barely observing
the man with a hint of disdain. “You really have this one trained,
don't you?”

Kait felt sick to her stomach. The only reason Paul was
trying to stand up for her was the
vox dei
. He was going to get himself killed, just
like Spencer, because she couldn't control her power. Unlike the
other Gospels, she didn't know how to focus it and use it to lead
people towards a cause. She just strong-armed them into helping
her, even when she didn't know what she wanted.

“
No!” Kait said. She glanced at Paul. “You have to
leave.”

“
That's right,” Grant hissed. He continued to grin at them
both. “Give in. Use your power. Use it to save his life. You
realize that's what you have to do, right? Drive him
away.”

“
What's he talking about?'

Kait bit her lip. How could she begin to explain this?
Grant wanted her to actively use the
vox dei
to send Paul away. She could do it. She
could overwhelm his free will entirely, in the same way she'd
forced some of the police officers to momentarily stand
down.

Why? Why did he want that? If Paul ran away,
Grant would lose all of his leverage. Shooting Kait wouldn't
accomplish much of anything, as they were both well aware. Maybe he
could knock her unconscious with enough bullets to the head, but he
seemed to be playing at something else.

“
Teach him,” Grant said. “School him in the truth. Show him
what you are. Then he will know the truth.”

“
I don't want to hurt him,” Kait replied.

“
You already have. He is confused. Confusion is distress.
You've made him afraid. Fear is agony. He wants you. Desire is
pain.”

Paul tried to interject. “Would both of you
stop talking like I'm not here?”

“
You are lucky, my fragile friend. Life is suffering,” Grant
replied. He brought his left hand up to his face. His fingers
traced the edge of his ghostly eye. “Every day. Every hour. Every
minute. The rest of the world has it so easy. For them, it will
eventually end. For us... We will always suffer.”

Paul's eyes went wide. “Us?” he gasped.
“You... You're immortal, too?”

Grant nodded. “It took you long enough to
figure it out. Unfortunately, that means that we have to kill you
now. You will not be the one learning my lesson today. It will be
Miss Selias. She will learn that the affection she feels for you is
just a prelude to agony.”

Dread fell over Kait as she realized that Grant was telling
the truth. This was why Mayor Levin really killed Spencer. It
wasn't to punish Kait. It wasn't to send a message. It was because
he
knew
. No one in St. Louis knew that many of the city's major
institutions—the government, the police, the church, the gangs, the
business sector—were controlled by the Gospels.

If the truth came out, not even the
vox dei
would be able to save the
immortal rulers of the city. Everyone would want a piece of them.
They would be captured. They would be separated. They would be
experimented on, until the even greater powers of the world figured
out the secret to their immortality. And that was a secret that had
already lasted two hundred years.

Maybe Christa was curious about open warfare
against the Gospels, but the rest of them were not. They would do
anything to prevent being found out. Now that Paul knew, he was a
dead man. And he was beginning to realize that, paralyzed just a
few feet behind her.

Kait wanted to tell him to be calm, but she was afraid that
he would listen to her. She desperately didn't want to use
the
vox
dei
on him
anymore and, until she could control it, she thought it would be
better to avoid giving him any instructions.

Her eyes scanned the street. The police
still had their weapons trained on her and Paul. There had to be
another way out of this. She needed them to focus on her. She could
handle herself. As long as he had a chance to run, everything would
be fine.

She had to do something to draw their
attention. She had to scare them enough to make them forget about
Paul. Then she had to hope that he would know to run.

“
That's it, isn't it?” Kait asked stepping closer to Grant.
“That's your Gospel? That's what you teach? Pain. Suffering.
Misery.”

The skin under Grant's eye twitched, but he
never stopped smiling. “It is what I know.”

“
Sounds like a shitty gospel to me,” Kait snarled. Before
Grant could react, she lowered her shoulder and slammed her body
into his chest. She felt him double over as the breath was knocked
from his lungs. Grabbing the fabric of his shirt, she pulled the
police chief to the ground.

Rolling over on her back, Kait noticed that
he plan had worked. Suddenly, every police officer on the street
was focused on her. They all had their guns trained on her and
Grant as they fought. None of them would dare pull the trigger.
They didn't know that Grant was immortal.

“
Go!” Kait shouted at Paul. “Get out of the
city. Don't come back!” She didn't care about using
the
vox dei
anymore. She just wanted to save his life.

Grant wrapped his long fingers around Kait's neck and began
to choke her. He was bigger than her, but his frame was thin and
wiry. If she tried, she could overpower him. It wasn't like he
could
really
stop her from breathing.

Kicking her legs against the ground, Kait
pushed Grant off of her. She twisted her torso around, freeing her
arm, and elbowed him in the ribs. He tried to stand up and get away
from her, but Kait was too fast. She grabbed his wrist and pulled
him back. Yanking his hand behind his back, she wrapped her wright
arm around his neck. Even though he was several inches taller than
her, she managed to wrestle him down to a crouching position so
that she could use him as a human shield.

As Kait tightened her arm, she realized that
his neck was more fragile than she expected, and that she was
stronger than she thought. It wouldn't take much to snap his spine.
That wouldn't kill him, but perhaps it would put him out of
commission for long enough to get Paul to safety.

Then she had a better idea.

“
No one move!” Kait shouted to the police officers. “Or I
kill him. Let Paul go. Then you can take me wherever you
want.”

The cops immediately started to lower their weapon. The
situation, combined with the power of the
vox dei
, was enough to fully overpower them. They
were compelled to give in to her demands and, for just a moment, it
looked like Kait had won. Paul would have the time he needed to
leave. Then she could deal with whatever came next.

“
You think you are so smart,” Grant rasped. “But you still
have so much to learn. This will be a mess to clean up, but I will
make sure that you know the pain of loss.”

“
Shut up!” Kait tried to close his throat with her arm to
keep him from speaking, but it was not enough.