8. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Zia
Zia breathed a sigh of relief as soon as Lucy was in sight again, dragging the Citizens’ second in command along with her. Like an obedient puppy, the man trailed behind her, but his features betrayed his fear. With every step, Derek’s eyes darted around them, clearly attempting to decipher Lucy’s intent.
If only he knew.
Aidan’s wolf growled long and low in his chest, the primitive warning shooting ice up Zia’s spine. Though she’d been around plenty of wolves and her sovereign’s panther before, Aidan’s alpha beast was far more dominant—and far more aggressive—than any she’d met before.
With his mate in danger, he radiated the urge to protect, and there’d be no relief from it until that threat passed.
As they’d planned, Lucy led Derek to the passenger side of the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Jeremiah’s invisibility cloaked the three of them inside from his prying eyes.
Satisfied no one was in the car, the Citizens lieutenant opened the door and sat down—to the immediate feel of a gun barrel pressed into his neck.
“If you do anything that threatens my mate, I won’t hesitate to use this weapon.”
Aidan’s words made Zia shiver, but her mate was unperturbed. “Which would be a real shame because grey matter is notoriously difficult to get out of leather.”
Lucy hit the gas, taking them out of the parking lot and toward the secondary location where Zia would work her magic.
The night before, Key had instructed them on how to deal with Derek in great detail. As he was immune to suggestion, there was only one option to keep him alive: altering his memories. His tenure with the Citizens was to be completely erased from his memory—as was his relationship with Lucy.
Remmus, their resident technopath, had already created an entirely new identity for Derek; one where Torrin and the other Citizens couldn’t find him. It was a witness protection program, of sorts.
Recoding his memories would remove him from the equation while simultaneously dealing a catastrophic blow to their enemies. Their fallback plan, should Torrin go public, was to bring Derek out of hiding, publicizing his story about how the Citizens group was a cult, made up of fanatics and extremists.
Derek smelled of fear and sour sweat by the time they pulled into the underground parking garage. Long abandoned, it was on the outskirts of the city and rarely visited by anyone except vandals and vagrants.
Tonight, it’d play host to the immortals and their enemy.
Stumbling out of the car, Derek whirled around. Those wide eyes darted between each of them, finally settling on his former fiancée. “Lucy, please, come on. I’d never hurt you. Please don’t do this.”
“Don’t do what?” Aidan’s dry tone sounded threatening even without a hint of malevolence. “You’ve no idea why you’re here.”
The Citizens sycophant backed into a wall, yelping as his spine hit the concrete. “Please don’t kill me.”
“Please don’t kill you ?” The wolf inside Aidan snarled. “Now you beg for your life? What about the others you’ve killed who never got that chance? What about all the wolves you’ve condemned to a tortured death because you turned them?”
Aidan’s fist shot out of nowhere to strike the pock-marked concrete an inch away from Derek’s face. Dust billowed out from under his knuckles, shards of concrete falling to the ground when he retracted his hand. The human male hacked at the resulting dust, quivering in fear, but Zia could find no empathy for him.
Sputtering, Derek put up two hands defensively. “The—the wolves weren’t my idea. I only ever wanted to hurt the vampires. They— they are the ones who hurt people.”
“How is that any different than what you are doing, Derek?” Lucy asked. “You’re hurting people. Those wolves you turned and forced to become rabid? Each of them had a family. A home. A mom and a dad. You turned them rabid. You made them hurt people.”
“We turned only those who wouldn’t be missed.”
“And purposefully turned hem rabid afterward—because they wouldn’t have harmed a soul otherwise,” Aidan growled, his top lip revealing teeth that looked too sharp to be human.
Finally donning the mask of the Citizens lieutenant, Derek recited, “Immortals kill people. Vampires make them do things they’d never otherwise do. You must’ve seen it by now, Lucy.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Derek.” Shaking her head vehemently, Lucy said, “The vampires I know are good people. None of them would make someone do something against their will; it’s against their code. I know Torrin has told you the vampire council has mandated blood bags instead of live feeds.”
“Those monsters have pulled the wool over your eyes.”
“My eyes are as clear as they’ve ever been.” Her gaze met Zia’s. “I think it’s time, don’t you?”
“Time for what?”
Cocky facade falling, Derek’s back hit the concrete again. But he had nowhere to go, and he merely fisted his hands and shifted uneasily on his feet as he looked back and forth between Zia and Lucy.
“We aren’t going to kill you, but we are going to modify your memories,” Jeremiah said, almost chipper. “Say goodbye to the old Derek.”
“Modify my memories? You mean brainwash me?” Derek turned snide. “I’m immune to suggestion. Good luck.”
“Oh, we know. That’s why I’m here.” Zia’s mouth curved while she pressed his limbs into the concrete behind him telekinetically. “And I’m no vampire.”
And then she was in his mind.
While his shielding was far more substantial than a regular human, Zia easily penetrated the protective layers to grasp hold of his consciousness. She immediately sent him into pseudo-sleep. He relaxed before her, his gaze going fuzzy while he remained standing against the concrete.
What she saw sickened her. His brutality with the wolves was merciless, using cattle prods and silver-tipped weaponry to rile them up before setting them loose on civilians or each other in bloody cage matches.
Hatred was Derek’s badge, and cruelty was his weapon of choice. That alone would’ve made Zia’s stomach churn, but it was the plotting, the planning for destruction against the immortal races that steeled her resolve. Together with Torrin, he had ruthlessly pursued individual immortals to their breaking point—some that the leaders of their nations still didn’t know were missing.
Zia carefully documented all of it from Derek’s mind.
Though she’d loved to have yanked the memories out indelicately, Lucy’s ask had been simple: leave everything she could and alter the rest. Because Lucy had asked and Key commanded, Zia would deliver.
That didn’t mean, however, that his new memories would be filled with roses and lollipops.
Once every spec of cruelty had been wiped away and every memory of the Citizens had been dissolved, she removed the entirety of his knowledge about immortals. He had been stripped clean, and then Zia went to work.
She’d poured over the falsified records of Derek’s new life, ensuring there would be no gaps or questions remaining when the human woke up. His life changed from one of cruelty to one of solitude, and the front of victim protection covered the lack of friends and family.
Zia left him his lonely, despicable life, with nothing but the coldness he’d shown them.
Before she retreated, she instilled a deep respect of women that would serve him well in the future. A future he’d now have because of Lucy’s graciousness.
While she was at it, Aidan, Jeremiah, and Lucy stripped him of his phone, keys, and wallet. Then, they replaced all the old items with the ones that would match his backstory.
A new apartment on the West Coast. A new job. A new identity. Derek was given a new lease of life, and he would never say thank you.
“You’re welcome, Derek,” Zia growled.
She retreated from his mind but kept him in thrall. Jeremiah was just finishing up as Zia’s vision returned to her. Her mate’s mischievous grin made her melt, but now wasn’t the time.
“All done.”
“Beam him up, Scotty,” came Lucy’s happy quip.
As they’d previously discussed, Nero would teleport Derek to the West Coast and into his new life. Eager to be done with the charade, she sent a mental ping to her sovereign, and the man instantly replied.
Ready?
Done and done, sovereign. He’s all yours.
In seconds, Nero had teleported to their location and beamed. “Aw, you shouldn’t have, Zia. A Citizens lieutenant, all wrapped up with a bow on top?”
He gave them a mocking salute before disappearing with their newly refurbished Citizens’ deserter.
“Our part is played.” Aidan growled, his arms snatching around his mate and pulling Lucy into the shelter of his embrace. “Good riddance.”