Chapter 33
TUESDAY DRAGS ON
IN WHICH JAMISON DECLINES A JOB OFFER
Jamison had no idea what to expect when he ran up the stairs of the hotel lobby with the cold handle of a gun in his hand.
His foreboding had peaked for a moment, and he’d jumped to the worst possible conclusion even as he railed against it.
She could not be dead. He forced himself on, finally homing in on the sixth floor of the hotel.
Bracing himself and gripping the weapon tighter, he ran out into the corridor.
He stopped short as he took in the scene. Dessa sat crumpled against the wall, and his grandfather, of all people, strode down the hallway toward her, flanked by two of his personal security guards.
But Dessa was alive, and though Jamison’s foreboding rang through his ears, he ran toward her. “Dessa!”
She turned toward him, fear and exhaustion clear in the taut lines of her face. “Jamison! Be careful.”
“Ah, Jamison.” His grandfather’s lips curled in a smile. “I suppose we should’ve expected you.”
A crash reverberated from one of the rooms, and Dessa flinched.
“What are you doing here?” Jamison asked, lowering his gun only slightly as he edged closer to Dessa.
“I heard my eldest grandson was doing something stupid, so we came to put a stop to it.”
As if to emphasize his words, Noah and Rhett crashed through the door into the hall.
But Noah was not quite right. He flickered in and out of shadow as Rhett clawed at him, and Noah stabbed him in the leg with a wooden stake.
Before Jamison could even raise his gun, Rhett crumpled to the floor in a heap, the stake protruding from his torso.
Chest heaving, clothes torn, and bleeding from several gashes, Noah took in the hallway.
He brushed off his pants and wiped the blood off his chin with a casual smile as if they were all meeting for lunch.
“Well, isn’t this quite the family reunion?
” He flashed a grin and grabbed Dessa’s cuffs, hauling her upright.
“You all won’t believe what I found out. ”
Dessa’s eyes rounded with fear, and Jamison raised his gun. “Noah, I’m not kidding. Put her down.”
“But you’ll want to hear this too. She could be the solution to all our problems, and she was right under your nose.” Noah’s pupils were blown wide, and he swayed on his feet, possibly as side effect of the vampire bite leaking blood on his collar.
Jamison was within arm’s reach now. “Noah, you’re either going to let Dessa go, or I’m going to make you let her go.”
On the floor, Rhett raised a shaking hand and clutched the stake in his chest. Not dead. Thank mercy.
“Oh, spare me all your holier-than-thou posturing.” Rolling his eyes, Noah turned toward Xavier and his two guards. “Grandfather, make him see sense, please. After all this AzRIO nonsense, he’s been even more annoying than usual.”
Xavier blinked, his face impassive. “Speak your piece, Noah, and then let the girl go. You’ve caused enough trouble as it is.”
Jamison shifted the gun in his grip but didn’t lower it. Was his grandfather here because he’d sensed the danger to Noah? Or was it because he’d sensed a danger to his business? Yes, that felt more right.
“We can’t let her go,” Noah balked. “She’s…”
But then Dessa moved so quickly, Jamison almost didn’t catch the motion. She wedged Noah’s face between her hands, looking directly in his eyes as she said, “You will forget everything that’s happened today.”
For a moment, everyone was still, then Dessa collapsed to the floor, and Noah looked about, dazed. “I…” He blinked and stared down at Dessa on the blood-stained carpet. “What did she do to me?”
Jamison ran to Dessa’s side, getting in between her and Noah. “It’s you who tried to kill her!”
“Ah, so she can erase minds like her uncle.” Xavier’s mouth twitched, his expression bored. “Interesting to witness, but not exactly new information.”
“No…” Noah blinked, obviously trying to fight off Dessa’s compulsion. “There was something else, I swear. She’s special. Powerful. You’ll want—”
Noah didn’t get to finish what he was saying before Rhett ripped the stake from his chest and leapt to his feet.
In a blur, he took Noah’s head in his hands and snapped his neck in one quick motion.
A second later, a volley of bullets from Xavier’s guards knocked Rhett to the ground.
Jamison shielded Dessa with his body, and she cried out as one grazed her leg.
“What the hell?” Jamison shouted, his foreboding stabbing into every pore. “You’re going to hit us!”
His grandfather raised his hand, and the gunfire ceased.
“Apologies. But the Vampire was unpredictable and obviously violent. I wasn’t sure who he’d lunge for next.
” Xavier looked at Noah’s body and tsked as if he was a stranger and not his own grandson.
“A tragedy to be sure, but at least now he won’t be making any more messes in the family’s name. ”
Jamison didn’t even know what to say about that, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that his foreboding was still rippling through him. “He wasn’t the one who got us into this whole mess.”
He gestured at himself to convey the curse he couldn’t speak aloud.
Of course, his dad and he had always suspected that his grandfather knew more about the curse then he let on, but Jamison wanted to hear his grandfather admit it.
Or at least acknowledge that he also carried the curse that stained them all. But his grandfather only smiled.
Jamison’s voice trembled with the rest of his body—with rage or grief, he wasn’t sure. “Don’t you care?”
Xavier laughed. “I find it interesting that you of all people would ask, considering how it’s been keeping you and your”—his gaze narrowed on Dessa—“friends alive. Empires have costs, Jamison, as you will eventually find out for yourself. Just think, you didn’t have magic, and you were bored, were you not?
Now, you have it in spades and look at the world it’s opened up for you. ”
Jamison nearly choked on his words, the memories of his father’s grief, of their guilt, like shards of glass in his mind. “People have died, Grandfather.”
“An unfortunate side effect, yes, but all magic has a cost. Think of it as another gift to help you eliminate weaknesses.”
Okay, his grandfather was seriously messed up. It sounded like the curse hadn’t been an accident at all. Instead he’d brought this upon them on purpose. “Who did this to us then? I want to talk to them.”
“Come now, grandson, you should know by now that’s against the rules.
” Xavier chuckled. “Then again, you were always a thickheaded thing. But maybe I can appeal to your business instincts. Perhaps I could find a way to tell you the particulars of our situation if you had information to trade, and we could make a friendly gentlemen’s deal.
Surely after all that time you’ve spent in the AzRIO, you would know if this girl was hiding any Uncanny secrets that could be useful to us. ”
“What’s to know?” Jamison’s heart pounded in his chest. “You saw her do the Uncanny trick just as well as I did.”
Xavier’s green eyes weighed Jamison, the silence thickening between them.
Finally, Dessa let out a low whimper in his arms, and Xavier’s lips twitched into a frown, an exasperated sigh leaking out of him.
“Disappointing, but not surprising, I suppose. This is why I tell you to network with people of actual substance, Jamison. After all, you were born to be an asset to this family. Your father may be letting you run wild for now, but in time, you too will be expected to take your place.”
“My loyalty is earned,” Jamison said. “And I have no interest in joining the family business.”
Before his grandfather could reply, a howl echoed in the distance, and his grandfather sighed.
“Don’t worry, Jamison. You’re still young and have much to learn.
” His gaze once again fell on Dessa. “One day, you’ll come to me for help, and just know, your rightful place will be waiting for you, as will I.
” With that, he and his men turned and disappeared into the elevator, leaving the two bodies in the hall.
Jamison tore off his shirt and wrapped it around Dessa’s bleeding leg. “C’mon, Dessa, wake up, please.” Her breathing was so shallow, he worried her heart would stop.
Her lashes fluttered open just a sliver, her words slurring. “I thought your dad told you not to make an enemy of your grandfather.”
Jamison nearly collapsed in relief, his thumbs stroking Dessa’s cheeks. “Yeah, well, you heard him say I could be thickheaded, right? At least there he’s not wrong.”
But now that he’d seen how callously his grandfather accepted Noah’s death, Jamison could admit that his father’s advice had also been valid.
That was a man who’d seen death and caused it many, many times.
As a cold-blooded bankroller, he’d been powerful, but now he had a self-protecting curse and his bottomless, hungry eyes set on the paranormal community.
Jamison’s foreboding spiked once more, telling him he’d made a wrong choice. But he didn’t care.
“Besides, I didn’t make him an enemy,” Jamison tried to joke. “He came that way.”
Dessa laid her cool hand featherlight on his bare chest. “You lost your shirt again.”
And that forced a chuckle from his lips. “That’s because you keep stealing them.”
“Brynn…She’s still alive. They’re keeping her in an RV by the lake.”
“We’ll find her,” Jamison promised, glancing at Rhett’s slowly moving chest. “We need to get help for Rhett too.”
“Finally, I was able to make a difference.” Her eyelashes fluttered closed again. “Thank you, Jamison.”
This time, he couldn’t resist pressing his lips to her forehead. “For you, Blue, anything.”
Then, the wolves burst into the hallway, and Jamison refocused on his cousin’s body and staring eyes. At last, his foreboding quieted, replaced by a slush of sorrow and relief. It wasn’t the ending he’d wanted, but at least it was an ending.