Chapter 71
71
EVANGELINE
“ H ello, Evangeline.” My father’s rough voice grated over my bones. “Of all the people I thought we’d run across, I didn’t think you’d be the one to catch us in the act, so to speak.”
I didn’t dare look at Eldric, still sprawled on the floor, his face nearly the same color as the mostly-dead Elder.
I didn’t dare let recognition shade my expression.
The moment my father realized he could use Eldric against me, the scholar was dead.
“Graverobbing?” I managed to peel my lips back in a parody of a grin. “I never thought you’d stoop that low, Silas. But carry on, skulking down here in a dark while your allies take all the risks up there.” I hooked my thumb at the ceiling. “I suppose this is pretty on point…for a coward and a liar.”
“We’re no cowards.” Dante hissed, droplets of spittle clinging to his beard. “This plan’s been in place from the beginning. Everyone assumes the same risk, even the witch, who…”
“Shut up, Dante.” Silas cut him off pleasantly. “No sense in telling Evangeline everything, is there?”
“Not like she’ll survive being buried down here.” Dante’s lips spread wide. “Not like she’s going to talk .”
On the edges of my vision, Eldric opened his eyes, his bleary gaze skipping from my father, to my uncle, to the monster between them. Then to me.
“Not sure who’d believe me, anyway.” I shrugged. “What is he, some old mummy Tyrell locked down here because he was rude at dinner and used the wrong fucking fork? He looks…and smells…like he’s got one foot in the proverbial grave anyway. Not sure what all the excitement’s about.”
“Guard your tongue.” Silas snapped. ‘You don’t know not of which you speak.”
“Look at you, talking like some ancient biblical character. You want this half-dead corpse, take him, though I’m not sure what your grand plans are. Prop him up outside with a pumpkin for Halloween?” Silas grew paler the longer I killed time, willing Eldric to fucking move . “Wait, I know, you could…”
“Shut the fuck up, you disrespectful child. Dante, make sure my daughter never speaks another word.”
Dante whipped out a dagger, and stepped out from beneath Ravok, leaving the Elder to sag like a bag of potatoes in my father’s arms, ribs jutting so sharply I wondered if they’d poke through his paper-thin skin.
I patted my hips, my thighs, a look of horror growing on my face as I came up empty.
“What’s the matter, Evangeline? Lose your weapons?” Dante’s hideous grin was all teeth. “Poor fucking planning on your part, I’d say.”
No, Malachi had stripped every last blade from me and now…now I would have to rely on good old American ingenuity. And Fenrus Nash, who had been looking out for me two days ago when he’d given me the loaded eight mil I whipped out of my hidden holster and pointed in Dante’s face .
“Looks like you brought a knife to a gun fight, uncle. Talk about poor fucking planning.”
Squeezing that trigger felt like a fucking epiphany.
Watching the bullet plow a hole through Dante’s forehead…like sweet, sweet vengeance.
Then, story of my life, everything went to shit.
Ravok’s eyes flew open as blood painted the domed room, his mouth gaped, baring fangs the size of my fingers. One second, he was lying half dead in Silas’s arms, the next…tearing Dante apart like a side of prime beef.
“You fucking bitch.” For once, my father seemed completely at a loss, standing over his brother, being devoured by a monster. ‘You fucking stupid bitch.”
“Well, I’m not one who’s Elder chow, am I?” I quipped, before Silas’s gaze narrowed and I realized I’d given myself away. “Oops.”
Silas pulled that little, glowing orb from his pocket, the pale light highlighting the madness in his eyes. The moment his hand closed around Ravok’s bony shoulder, all three of them vanished, Ravok still feeding, my father looking at me like he was making me a promise.
I was dead. Worse than dead.
Still not as dead as Dante, though.
“Thank fuck. Now take my hand, Evangeline.” Eldric slapped his palm against mine and we disappeared into a whirling, fiery heat, so much different than Blake’s wind-swept shadows, or Riordan’s cold fire.
When we landed out behind the ruined castle, I patted my flaming cheeks, hardly believing I was alive. Eldric stumbled forward, crashed into me and we faceplanted in the grass.
“Get off.” I shoved at him, but all he did was shake uncontrollably. “Are you having a spasm? Wait…are you fu cking laughing?” I hissed. “Are you seriously laughing right now?”
“We were trapped in a room with your homicidal family and an Elder who hasn’t fed in a thousand years. And we’re still fucking alive.” He rolled off me, his hand flopping onto his chest. “Fuck yes, I’m laughing. What should I be doing?”
“Hoping they don’t come back and kill us.”
“Who’s coming to kill us?” Then I was staring up at my sister, the wind whipping her hair around her face, her narrowed glare sharp enough to cut. ‘You lied to me. You didn’t go meet Riordan and Blake, because they’re out here, looking for you, Evangeline.” I winced at her tone. God, she sounded exactly like mom. “You stayed in the castle, didn’t you?”
“Only for a little while, and only to rescue this idiot.” I punched Eldric in the arm, kind of hard to do when you’re lying flat on your back.
“Hey, I saved your life.” Eldric complained, trying to fix his hair, also hard to do when you’re on your back. Still, that flop of red curls fell perfectly over his sloped forehead, framing those golden eyes perfectly as he winked at my sister.
“Like hell you saved me…” I grumbled at the same time the entire castle disintegrated, flames roaring up through the piles of rubble, the deafening crash driving everything out of my head except the thought I could have been buried beneath all those stones.
Eldric waggled his eyebrows. “You were saying?”
“Oh, shut up.” I muttered, taking Angel’s hand, letting her pull me to my feet.
“What about me?” Eldric complained. “I’m the hero and everything.”
“Oh, shut up.” Angel and I said together .
“I can’t believe you went back and risked your life for him.” Angel didn’t even bother looking at Eldric, and a hurt expression flew across his face.
“Well, he’s really not that bad, when he’s not talking. Which isn’t often.” I finally took pity on him and heaved him to his feet. “You’re heavier than you look.”
“I’m a lot of things I never get any credit for.” Eldric grumped, straightening out his cloak. “Shouldn’t you be…I don’t know…rallying the troops or something ?” He jerked his head toward the front of the castle, where Knightsguard rounded up our surviving enemies, and flashes of white fire and black shadows raged up into the sky.
“Shouldn’t you warn them? About the threat ?” He muttered pointedly, while Angel’s expression sharpened into suspicion.
“Evangeline, tell me what’s going on this very minute, or I swear, I will lose my mind.”
“We…uhm…might have a problem.” I could have lied to her. I probably should have lied to her, but I was so tired of covering up the truth. Besides, all this deception had only led us to…right here.
“Silas and Dante were waiting when I went back to save poor Eldric, here.” The asshole in question elbowed me in the side. Hard .
“Malachi trapped Eldric in a hidden lower level of the basement where Malachi’s Maker was entombed in an iron coffin. For quite a long time, from the looks of him.”
“Malachi’s Maker is in the basement? Of the castle?” Angel’s pinched gaze drifted past me, to the burning ruins. “Why would he do that?”
“Because Malachi’s Maker is the most powerful vampire in existence. His name is Ravok, and he’s been keeping him alive because…” I looked at Eldric for help. “ Because? ”
“Don’t look at me. I’m not a power-hungry lunatic, so I couldn’t begin to hazard a guess at what that fucker has planned.” He rubbed his head. “Whatever his plans were, I highly doubt Malachi Draven expected your father to cart Ravok away from his double secret-secret hiding place.”
No, I highly doubted that, too.
But Uncle Dante had mentioned the witch , who was supposedly Malachi’s ally. Not a very good one, if Aria stabbed him in the back tonight, but certainly no worse than he deserved.
“So…please tell me this isn’t the same Ravok who took over Riordan?” Angel whispered and I nodded. “But I thought…” Her gaze drifted to the flames. “I mean, Laurent talked about Caine and the Elders all the time, but he said they were all dead.”
Eldric and I exchanged a long glance.
Whatever Malachi’s plans were for his Maker, they’d been derailed, and now that Ravok had fed—and by fed, I meant devoured my uncle like a tenderized steak—he’d be a real threat.
I had no illusions about my father keeping an Elder contained, and I highly doubted any of them—even Aria—would be a match for Ravok.