Unbound (The Captive Series, Book 7) (18 page)

“And after seeing her parade of humans in the woods, I think we know what she does with those people,” Aria said.

Max placed his glass down and walked over to her. She tried to jerk away when he clasped her hands, but he kept a firm hold on them as he lifted them and uncurled her fingers from where they’d torn her flesh back on her palms. Her forehead furrowed at the blood flowing from the large gashes, and he realized she hadn’t known what she was doing.

Daniel rose and entered the room the humans had left open for Aria to sleep in. He returned with a towel and handed it to Max who wrapped it around her hands. The cuts would heal quickly, but he didn’t want her to get any more blood on her pants.

“Are you going to tell us what happened out there?” Daniel inquired.

“There are some things that can never be unheard,” Aria murmured.

“No,” Max said.

She tugged on her hands again, and this time, Max released them to her before returning for his glass of wine. He stared at the wall as Xavier resumed his pacing.

“Would you please get him out of here? His pacing is driving me nuts,” Aria said to Daniel.

“Not leaving you,” Xavier said flatly.

“I’ll be fine. There are plenty of guards, and I know you’ll stay close. I need a moment of stillness.”

Xavier went completely still, but the tension radiating from him made him feel like a bomb about ready to explode as sweat beaded across his forehead and trickled down his temple.

“Xavier, please go,” she said. He made a disgruntled sound before turning on his heel and stalking over to the door. He opened it and walked into the hallway. Aria turned toward Daniel. “I don’t think he should be alone right now.”

Daniel rose to his feet. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Daniel bent to kiss the top of her head. “I don’t know what happened out there, but you did good, you all did. This is all useful information.”

Before she could respond, he turned and followed Xavier into the hall. “You two can have the room,” Aria said to William. “I won’t be sleeping tonight.”

“I’ll stay up with you,” William offered.

“No, rest. You look tired.”

“Someone took off and left me behind to worry about them.”

The corner of Aria’s mouth quirked into the faintest hint of a smile. She removed the towel from her hands and set it in her lap. “Serves you right for taking off after Kane.”

“At least I said good-bye.”

“Only because I stopped you before you could leave town.”

“I didn’t take two others with me.”

“Only because you insisted upon going alone. Go, get some rest.”

William hesitated, but when he glanced down at Tempest, Max knew he had lost the battle before he rose to his feet and walked out of the room with her cradled against his chest. Max filled two glasses of wine and returned to his seat.

“You know,” Timber said quietly, “ugliness is a way of the world. You have to accept that, but it’s when you let the ugliness eat at you until it makes you ugly too, that you truly lose a piece of yourself.”

Aria’s mouth parted as she turned toward him, but before she could respond, Timber’s chin fell onto his chest and he released a loud snore. “How does he
do
that?” she asked in awe.

Max stretched his legs out before him. “I wish I knew.”

Aria stared at him with her head tilted to the side. “Today made you think of your time with
her
again, didn’t it?”

He knew she’d avoided saying the name to try to spare him some distress, but there was none to be spared, not tonight. “With Katrina, yes.”

Aria’s mouth pursed, a muscle in her jaw twitched. “If she hadn’t already been put to death, I’d kill her again for you.”

Max smiled as he stared into his glass of wine. “I know you would.”

“You never talk of what happened there. Would you like to now? I’ll listen to anything you’re willing to tell me.”

“There are some things that can never be unheard,” he reminded her.

She removed her glasses to reveal her reddened eyes and set them in her lap. “I think we’ve all gone beyond the point of being sheltered in our lives.”

“Then why not tell them what we did today?”

“Because it’s not necessary for them to know. They shouldn’t have to carry that burden too.”

“And hearing my horror stories are necessary to know?” He couldn’t keep the sharp edge from his tone.

“I think it would be better if you let it all out instead of continuing to keep it in, you know, like that whole ugliness thing Timber said.”

“And when are you going to let it all out?” he inquired. “Your eyes have yet to go back to their normal color.”

“That’s entirely different and you know it. I’m a dead woman walking without Braith,” she reminded him. “I’m barely keeping it going until all of this is over. You’re twenty-three years old and you have your whole life ahead of you. You deserve love and happiness, more than the rest of us probably.”

“Not true,” he said.

“You sacrificed yourself and became a blood slave because of
me
. What was done to you should never have been done to another. You
deserve
some peace, and I will do anything I can to help you find it.”

“You sacrificed yourself and became a blood slave because of John. If not for Braith, your experience would have been as bad as mine, if not more so. I am happy now.” At her raised eyebrow and disbelieving look, he continued. “Happier than I’ve been in a long time. Well, before everything went to shit anyway. I was healing. I’d found my place at Daniel’s side, helping him to rule and make decisions with The Council. I may not have been in charge, but I was still doing good, for all of us, and I enjoyed it.”

“And how do you feel after today?”

“Today broke me again a little,” he admitted. “But I’ll figure out how to put myself back together. I did before.”

“I can help with that, or I can try to anyway.”

“Sometimes, just sitting with someone helps.”

“Like when we used to sit together and fish without speaking?”

He smiled at the memory of those early days after they’d both been freed. They’d been such somber days, but the two of them sitting together had helped. “Yes, like that.”

“I can do that.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like some wine?”

“I’d like nothing more than to be drunk right now, but I’m afraid if I let my guard down even a little, I’ll snap. I might even eat you.”

“I would have accepted no for an answer.”

She gave him a small smile as she leaned back in the chair, her reddened eyes surveying him. He missed their crystalline blue color, and he missed her full smile, the one that lit her face and radiated her joy. They didn’t speak for half an hour before he rose to his feet and poured himself two more glasses of wine.

Walking over, he sat in the chair across from her once more. “Do you remember when we were younger and used to play hide and seek in the caves?” he asked.

“I do,” she replied.

“How about the time William put a snake in your blanket?”

Her gaze flicked toward the closed door William and Tempest had gone through. “I’d forgotten about that. I
never
should have given him my room tonight.”

Max laughed and took a sip of wine. “What about the time you dove off the waterfall?”

“And my pants came off?”

“That’s the time.”

“I’d never been more embarrassed in my life, and all you guys did was point and laugh as my pants were swept downstream.”

“You were so mad.”

“You would have been mad too. The water was freezing.”

He smiled at the memory of Aria, sopping wet as she stomped her way out of the river after reclaiming her pants. “You didn’t speak to any of us for the rest of the day.”

“But you all brought me flowers the next day and said you were sorry.”

“None of us ever liked it when you were mad at us.”

“I know,” she said. “It was always the same way when one of you were mad at me. You weren’t as easily bought off with a bouquet though.”

“You always brought us a new fur.”

“I did.”

He thought he saw a flash of blue in her eyes, but it was gone before he could be sure. He’d once believed he was in love with her; he now knew he’d been lost and looking for someone to care for him when he’d never felt more dirty and unlovable in his life. The thing was, Aria had always loved him, just as he would always love her.

“I’m not ready to lose you,” he said honestly.

Her eyes darted toward the door to the hall, her fingers fidgeting in her lap. “I’m not ready to lose any of you, but without Braith—”

“I understand,” he interrupted. “No explanations. I don’t think either of us need to hear what we’ve experienced and are experiencing. I think we both
know
.”

Her gaze came back to him. Tears glistened briefly in her eyes before she wiped them away. “You’re right. Those kind of revelations aren’t necessary.”

He sipped at his wine, but he found that this time he far preferred talking with her to the silence. He didn’t know if he would ever get this chance with her again. “Remember when we all covered ourselves in mud along the riverbank and jumped out of it to scare your father?”

This time Aria actually did give a real laugh; it was short, but it was there. “Not even as a vampire have I ever run as fast as I did when he chased after us.”

“Neither have I,” he admitted.

William

“Is she asleep?” William whispered in disbelief when he stepped out of the room and spotted Aria in the chair she’d been sitting in last night. He assumed it was morning because he’d awoken and felt somewhat rested, but couldn’t be sure of the exact time of day.

Max lifted bloodshot and bleary eyes to him. “She is,” Max whispered back.

“How did that happen?”

“We were up talking until late. She fell asleep about an hour ago.”

As far as he knew, that was the most she’d slept since Braith died. “Hopefully it will last longer than that,” William said as he soundlessly closed the door behind him. If he didn’t think it would wake her, he’d carry Aria in to sleep with Tempest, but there was no way she would sleep through being relocated. She couldn’t possibly be comfortable sitting in the chair with her chin on her chest, but he would leave her be. “How much did you drink last night?”

“Enough to kill my liver, but not enough to get me drunk,” Max replied.

“Will you be going with Daniel to retrieve Jack?”

“Yeah.”

William eyed the two empty jugs of wine and then Max. Despite the red veins encircling his blue eyes, he looked entirely alert as he watched William. “I think you definitely killed your liver.”

“Believe me, I know,” Max replied.

“What were you talking about all night?”

“Old times in the forest. I wouldn’t mind an hour or two of sleep myself.”

William knew when he’d been asked to shove off. “If Tempest wakes, tell her I’m in the barn.”

“Will do,” Max replied.

William made his way out the door, down the hall, and up the stairs. He checked through the peepholes, spotting Xavier, Daniel, and Timber standing with a group of humans from the safe house, talking amongst themselves. Undoing the lock, he shoved the door open and stepped into the early morning rays of sun filtering through the cracks in the roof above.

Daniel turned toward him as he emerged and closed the door behind him. William walked over to join them.

“How are Aria and Max?” Daniel asked.

William glanced at Xavier, wondering if he’d told Daniel what had happened while the three of them were out there. He seriously doubted it. If Aria and Max weren’t talking, the normally stoic vampire wasn’t about to either.

“Aria is actually sleeping and Max is trying to get some sleep now,” William replied.

“Will Max be ready to leave soon?”

“He drank two jugs of wine, looks like he’s been awake for two weeks straight, and smells like a brewery, but I’m pretty sure he’s good to go.”

“Good. The sooner we get this journey over with, the better,” Daniel replied.

The creak of the door drew their heads around as Aria pushed it open and entered the barn. Her glasses were back in place, but she still lifted her hand to rest it against her forehead to shade her eyes from the sun.

“At least she got a little rest,” William said as Max exited behind her and turned to offer his hand to someone else.

Tempest’s crisp, wintry scent reached him before he caught sight of her. William hurried forward to take her hand from Max and help her out of the safe house. She was still annoyed with him for pushing her back down into the stairwell when those vampires found them the other day, but she took his hand and gave it a little squeeze. The smile she gave him melted his non-beating heart and let him know the rest of her annoyance with him had faded away.

Leaning forward, he kissed her forehead. “What is going on?” she asked.

“They’re getting ready to go back for Jack,” he replied.

A small shudder went through her and he knew she was thinking the same as him.
What would happen with Braith?
They couldn’t bring him here, others couldn’t know he was dead, but to leave him alone in the caves would be to leave him vulnerable. No matter how much Jack loved his brother, he wouldn’t agree to leave Hannah behind so she could watch over him, and Daniel, Timber, and Max may not be enough to keep Braith protected. He highly doubted Xavier would agree to remain in the caves with Aria here.

“Are you ready?” Daniel asked Max.

“I have to gather some things,” Max replied and smoothed down his spiky hair. “But I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

“Are you sure you don’t want some of us to go with you?” one of the humans asked.

“We’ll only be a couple of days,” Daniel replied. “And we need as many people here as possible.”

All of the humans and vampires they’d encountered had been told Braith and Jack were out on a mission of their own, and in a way, they were. Jack was on a mission to protect his brother, and William really hoped Braith was working on a way to make it back to them. Somehow.

The knowledge it
was
Sabine trying to destroy them all had helped to bolster his hopes that Braith would come back, but it could still be impossible. Had Sabine died like originally believed, or had she faked her death? He felt there would have been a body for her family to have believed her dead, but what did he know about something that occurred over a thousand years ago?

He vaguely recalled something in Atticus’s journals about her being buried in the family plot in a place called Traslania? Trasylvia?
Transylvania,
he finally remembered
.
If there was a burial plot, there had to have been a body, or at least he really hoped there was.

Sabine had come back, so had Atticus, and so would Braith, but would it be in time?

It may not be, and there was nothing they could do about that, except carry on with their plan. If they didn’t stop Sabine, they would lose everything and Braith would awaken to find his world burned to the ground by a member of his family, again. He may wake to find all of his loved ones gone, lost to the war, including Aria.

William shut the thought off and drew Tempest closer against his chest. He would do everything he could to get them both through this. He’d vowed to give her a better life than the one she’d known in Badwin. Now he wasn’t sure any of them would still be here next week.

Resting his hands flat against her belly, he drew her back so she fit snug against his chest. He planned to ask her to marry him when all of this was settled, but it may never be settled, and he didn’t want her to have any doubt about his feelings for her, or the integral part she played in his life. If something were to happen to them, she needed to know exactly how he felt about her.

This place wouldn’t be romantic, and he didn’t have a ring, but he would figure something out that would make it special for her.

“Gather what you need,” Daniel said to Max.

Max retreated back into the safe house. Aria opened her mouth to say something then closed it again. They waited until Max returned with a full quiver of arrows and a bow slung over his shoulder before heading outside, leaving the humans from the safe house behind.

“Braith,” Aria said and winced as if the name had torn her open anew.

Max steadied her when she briefly swayed on her feet. William resisted knocking her hand away when it rested over her heart again. For as long as he lived, he would never forget the image of his sister trying to tear her heart from her chest.

“Someone must stay with him,” she managed to croak out.

“I will,” Max offered.

William’s eyebrows shot up at this statement. They definitely got along better than they had in the beginning, but Max and Braith had never been close.

“You will need help,” Aria said. “Just in case.”

“You know how much I love a good fight, but I will stay with him too,” Timber offered. “Daniel and his brain will be needed here, to help guide and lead the humans.”

Daniel planted his staff into the ground and leaned against it. “Everyone wants me for my brains. What about my beauty?”

“Get better looking,” William said to him, and Daniel’s smile grew.

Aria smiled wider than he’d seen in over a week. He didn’t know what Max had done to her last night, but he almost hugged the guy. For the first time, he had hope that maybe his sister would get through all of this and be okay, even if Braith didn’t come back.

Then his gaze fell to Tempest and his hope deflated. No, Aria may be showing signs of life because she loved them all, but no one came back from that kind of loss. No matter how much he loved everyone gathered around him, he could not continue on without Tempest. He pulled her closer against him, a possessive rumble working its way through his chest as he kissed her temple. She turned to look at him, her doe eyes full of understanding as she rested her hand against his cheek.

Aria turned to Xavier. “I know you won’t want to stay with Braith—”

“I am not going with them to get Jack, Aria.”

Daniel didn’t look at all stunned by Xavier’s words, but Aria’s mouth dropped. “You must,” she said.

“They can detect someone else’s passing through the forest and know when someone is closing in on them. They read these woods better than I read the history scrolls. My duty is to you first.”

“And to Braith,” she protested.

Xavier clasped his hands before him. “No, it is to
you
. Braith knows that. I am to guard you, to defend
you
with my life. It is what I have
chosen
to do until the day I die.”

“But Braith will need a vampire to watch over him too.”

“There is nothing one vampire can do against Sabine’s troops that the humans can’t do.”

“They can’t carry him,” she protested.

“Timber can.”

“We’ve discussed it already and it has been decided,” Daniel said before Aria could argue with them further.

“What if I asked you to go?” Aria inquired of Xavier.

“You could command me to go and I would not. You are the one I protect. I couldn’t come with you when you left the cave before, but I will not leave you now,” Xavier replied.

“We’ll be fine,” Daniel said. “Xavier is right. We know these woods better than anyone, and it’s time for us to get going. We’re wasting time discussing this. Hopefully, I’ll be back with Jack by sundown tomorrow.”

William glanced between them and then to Xavier and Aria. The last thing he wanted was to leave Aria alone. She had Xavier here to watch over her, but she could decide to do something crazy in a split second. However, he didn’t want his brother and his friends out there alone.

Aria’s been good so far.

“I’ll go with them,” William said and Tempest stiffened in his arms.

“Then I’m coming with you,” Tempest said.

“We’ll move faster if it’s just us. We have more knowledge of the woods,” William said gently. “And I will move faster knowing you are safe here.”

“If I can climb a mountain in a blizzard, I can find my way through these woods. I’m not staying here without you. You can’t expect me to when you wouldn’t.”

She had him there, but the idea of her in those woods again made him consider changing his mind about offering to go with them.

“You both forget you were once human too, and would have felt secure doing this without a vampire as added protection,” Daniel said and looked sternly between him and Aria.

With that look on his face and his mouth curved into a disapproving line, he looked so much like their father that William heard the,
I’m so disappointed in you,
in his head without Daniel having to say it. Aria must have felt the same way as she bowed her head and folded her hands before her.

“Sorry,” she and William muttered at the same time.

Daniel gave a brisk nod before turning to William. “Unless you’re willing to stay with Braith also, then it’s best you stay here.” He gave a pointed look at Aria before continuing. “They need your skill with a bow here. We need as many vampires as we can get on this side of the palace walls, and Jack will want you here.”

William had to agree that Jack
would
want him here. They’d been friendly when Jack had been in the forest, pretending to be a rebel, before Jack had actually
become
one, but after his father had died, the two of them had become much closer.

During the time after his death, they’d leaned on each other, traveled together and fought together. Jack trusted his opinion as much as William trusted Jack’s. William knew being king was not a role Jack wanted. He would do well with it as he was kind, fair, and likeable, but Jack would chafe against the bonds being king would put him in. He would look to his friends for advice and to help keep him sane.

“You’re right,” William finally agreed, and the rigid set of Daniel’s shoulders eased.

“Good, we’ll see you soon,” Daniel said briskly.

They said good-bye to everyone before disappearing into the woods as if they’d never been there to begin with. The only sign of their passing was the still shaking pine needles, which were barely noticeable to the naked eye.

“We have to notify the palace about Sabine’s impending attack,” Aria said.

“How?” William inquired.