20. Finley
Finley
“Tell me the best time and place to be if I want to take out everyone important to the Dark Ring. I want to shatter the whole thing into a billion pieces so they can never recover from it,” I said, staring down at the sobbing woman.
The drug I gave her appeared to be having a stronger effect than normal.
I was getting the response I wanted, but it seemed a little more extreme of a response.
Delilah was an impressive actor. I’d almost believed her that first time around.
The thing was, that story was true, and it had happened to someone.
I’m just not sure it was her. You could fool a polygraph by telling the truth, but it might not be your truth.
Whatever you said well and truly happened but maybe not to you.
It was clever and whoever taught her did it well.
This reaction to Bakos, however, was true, the most authentic I’d seen her act this whole time.
Delilah absolutely loved that man in her own way and me torturing him had brought the effects of the drug out tenfold.
Now to see if she would actually tell me what I wanted to know or if the lies continued.
The side effect of this drug was it made everything feel ten times more.
So pain was far worse than it would be normally, so a paper cut feels like I just stabbed you.
The downside, the drug only lasted a half hour.
If I didn’t get what I needed by then, I didn’t have another dose.
The Organization was the one who gave it to me.
I just squirreled it away if I didn’t use it.
“The Coexist Gala, it’s the biggest event the Dark Ring and the Senate both attend together, even if they don’t realize it.
There used to be a separation of the two units, but as the years have gone on, both are so blended now it might as well be one.
That night, they party into the night, celebrating the fact that humans and supernaturals alike live together in harmony thanks to the United Senate.
Bunch of bullshit if you ask me, they are the ones who are destroying the world.
Polluting our bloodlines with their monsters, soon there won’t be any humans left.
They’ll all become like you,” Delilah spewed her rage.
I glanced over at Derven, who seemed irritated. “Have you ever gone to the gala?”
“No, it was one even for only the important people to attend. No slaves, servants, pets, or bedwarmers were allowed. If your name wasn’t on the list, you weren’t getting in no matter who you are,” he explained.
“If you want to go to that gala, you have to be the right kind of people and none of us are. I’m not sure even Delilah would be able to go. ”
She gave him a wide smile. “Oh, I can go. You said you knew who my family was. Well, my grandfather likes to take me along with him, so he’s not alone at these events. I might not warm his bed any longer—that honor has gone to my sister—but he still has a special place for me at his side.”
So the story was hers but also her sisters. Did that mean her grandfather was the founder of the Dark Ring?
“Your grandfather is an important person, but he’s getting old. He must worry that someone will come in to usurp him,” I commented.
Delilah shook her head dramatically. “Nope,” she said, popping the P. “He has a person already lined up to do it, and I’m supposed to marry the bastard, so we keep family alliances and all. He’s so much older than me, though, and I hate him.”
“Tell me who he is and I’ll get rid of him,” I offered, hoping this would get her to spill her guts.
She gave me a funny look as if she was surprised. “You don’t know, do you? I thought you just wanted confirmation, but you really have no idea.”
“Then this should be a crowning moment for you that you get to tell me something that will apparently rock my world,” I taunted as I started to circle her chair.
“The great Delilah has knowledge I want, and by your tone, it’s something that will hurt me to learn.
What’s keeping you silent? Go for the shot, take me down a peg, and make it good.
” I paused in front of her as I said this last part, cocking a brow at her.
“That’s the thing, though. I don’t think it will hurt not if you don’t know the truth,” Delilah explained.
“The person you are looking for is closer to you than you think. He’s been a shadow in your life lurking, waiting for the right moment to pounce, but somehow you keep slipping through his fingers.
It’s almost as if fate knows you’re supposed to ruin us just like you want to. ”
Elias growled, losing his patients, and backhanded her across the face. He, of course, had no idea that would hurt a million times more than it should as she screamed bloody murder. It worked in my favor, though, as I pulled him back.
“Answer me, Delilah, or I’ll let him do more than backhand you.
This drug makes everything worse. Better yet, why don’t I do the same thing to Bakos and torture him since you don’t care about him as much as you say.
You won’t do the one thing that can save him, so what happens next is your fault,” I warned.
“James,” she screamed. “His name is James. He’s your father.”
I froze, not expecting that answer at all. “What?”
“See, you don’t even know who he is or the danger you’ve been in,” she carried on. “He blames you for killing your mother and joined the Dark Ring for the sole purpose of using it to torment you for the rest of your ridiculously long life as an elf.”
“He’s a vampire. How could he possibly take over the Dark Ring? Their whole purpose is to prove that humans are still higher on the food chain then. Why the hell would your grandfather let him take over or marry you?” Derven argued.
Delilah looked over at him. “So you do know who he is.” She nodded her head a moment, lost in thought, before answering.
“Vampires have amazing powers to manipulate people’s minds.
Add to it that he was also a witch before he was changed, making him even more dangerous.
My grandfather is old and losing his mind, but he was fine before he showed up.
Back then, he was just a witch, and many people feel that witches are human because they have to cast spells to use magic.
They don’t have it living inside them like you elves do.
“There was an accident at one of the parties, and during a hunt, a vampire that lost their mind to hunger drank James dry, but the bastard had a spell on him to keep him alive. Just didn’t realize that mixing it with vampire venom in his blood changed him into one.
Technically he is still alive. As for the marriage thing, that was a contract made before he turned fangy and there’s no way out of it unless one of us dies,” she finished with a shrug.
“Looks like both of us are gonna die anyway.”
An incredibly small part of me felt bad for Delilah.
It seemed like she didn’t have a chance to grow up as anything but this cruel, heartless woman.
She had so much going wrong in her life and had only been surrounded by people who wanted to destroy each other.
Maybe killing her would finally set her free.
She wouldn’t have to be in pain anymore.
“I told you if you gave me the information I wanted to know, I’d do something about it.
I’ll tell you, so you know that this whole thing is going to crash, burn, and be ground into the dirt under my heel.
” I shared squatting to look her in the eyes.
“The Dark Ring and the Senate will end by my hand, same with the bastard who claimed to once love my mother because he’s damn well no father of mine.
I’ll even send the man you really love along with you, so maybe you’ll be able to find each other in the afterlife. ”
Delilah’s eyes welled up with tears. “Thank you, I’ve been too much of a little bitch to do it myself and Bakos would never allow me to leave him behind.”
Shoving to my feet, I stepped behind her and pulled out another syringe with fast-acting poison.
I wouldn’t need the whole thing to kill her, so I could use the rest on him.
They’d even share the same needle in their death.
How romantic is that? Holding her head gently, I acted as quickly as I could to ensure it wasn’t cruel.
I might not want either of them to live, but I wasn’t going to stoop to their level either.
Done with her, I moved over to Basko and knelt beside him.
He lay there, tears leaking out of his eyes, turning the dirt to mud. “Is she dead?”
“Yes, but you will be right behind her,” I answered as I pressed the plunger the rest of the way.
Staying there a moment, I waited for his last breath, needing to ensure this bastard was well and truly dead, not coming for me anymore. Task completed, I put the syringe back in the holder to be disposed of later where it wouldn’t ever be tied back to me or anyone else.
“Sangele meu,” Derven said, offering me a hand and pulling me to my feet.
He searched my face, probably assuming I would be flustered by the turn of events we just learned, but I felt nothing.
Not anger, sadness, betrayal, or even satisfaction that we got the information we needed.
I was numb, and I wished to stay that way for a while.
I’d let myself process what happened but for now, being hollow was better.
Besides, I had a phone call to make, and it wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation.
Without a word to anyone, I got back into the SUV and pulled out my cell phone. I typed in the number I had memorized and listened to it ring twice.
“Daughter?” Eli answered. “I didn’t ever expect to hear from you again.”
“Can you get me into the Coexist Gala?” I asked.
There was a pause on the other end. “Why would you need to go to that?”
“That wasn’t the question,” I countered. “It’s a simple yes or no.”