Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
YORICK
Wick turns to see who we’re looking at and his brow furrows. “I sure didn’t invite him here. He and his wife love to stir up trouble, leaving me to clean up their mess.”
Shaking his head, Wick walks over to greet Niles, who is slowly making his way into the building.
He grabs a glass of blood and whips the glass into the crowd.
A man catches it before it hits the person he’s talking to and they look over at Niles in confusion, but Niles merely looks around, like he’s searching for something.
Wick reaches him, but it’s clear Niles doesn’t want to interact with him.
“Do you think he knows?” I ask.
“We’re about to find out,” Julian mutters when the man notices us and starts toward us.
I place a beaming smile on my face as he heads over. “Hey, Niles! I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Why are you guys here?” he asks. “I see you have your pet back, Atticus.” His eyes are fixated on me, and my grip on Atticus’s arm tightens. “Were you not just hanging on to Morpheus like this? You already moved on to Atticus?”
Atticus pulls me back from Niles. “Morpheus sent me. It was an exchange for giving Yorick back to me.”
Niles gives us a cold laugh. “You do realize that every time you do something for Morpheus, he gains more control over you?” Stepping right up into Atticus’s space, he grabs Atticus’s face in his hand as he glowers down at him.
“He will just take and take until there’s nothing left of you, like last time.
Until you’re a beaten husk begging for someone to kill you.
I wouldn’t kill you back then, and I’m sure as fuck not going to help you now. ”
Atticus smacks his hand away. “What do you want? Did you come here just to piss me off? Because you’re doing a very good job of it.”
“I want to know what happened to my wife,” he hisses.
“The last time I saw your wife was when I came to retrieve Yorick. You were there.”
“Yes, and then your little pet went to her club with her, which is where I found her body and no Yorick,” he snarls.
“Lou… Lou is dead?” I ask, feigning shock.
Niles’s fingers twitch, like he aches to grab me and snap my neck, but Atticus’s presence is the only thing making him behave. “Did you not already know?”
“No, I had no idea. What happened?”
“You went with her that night.”
“I did… but she got a message and said she had something to do in the back and left me sitting out there for an hour. I got irritated and left, which is when I ran into Atticus and Morpheus, who told us to come here,” I say. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
Niles is fast, which is no surprise when he’s twice Atticus’s age, yet somehow Atticus deflects his grab for me and steps between us.
“I see what you’re getting at, but do you really think Yorick could attack and kill Lou?
Yorick might be close to five hundred, but that’s still less than half of Lou’s age, and he was never raised to fight.
You saw how slowly he reacted just now. Do you think Lou would have lost to him? I’ve seen her fight.”
Niles growls something out and lets his hand fall, especially when he sees Wick making his way toward us. Wick is plainly not happy Niles is here but seems to want to keep the peace.
Niles fixates on someone else as I tighten my hold on Atticus’s arm, thankful when the man finally leaves us so he can harass some others.
“Maybe we should leave?” I suggest, knowing the vampires will have to leave before too long to avoid the sun.
“That might make us look more guilty,” Casimir says.
Julian shrugs. “Well, the sun will be up in a little over an hour, so we really don’t have much time to decide what to do with any of this. It looks like many people are planning on staying here or staying at the hotel right down the road. But we don’t need to be among them. We need to go.”
“Morpheus sent Niles and us here,” I say. “I really think we should leave. Something’s not right. We’ll use the excuse of a longer drive to leave.”
Atticus shakes his head. “If Morpheus wants us here, he’s not going to let us leave.”
“I’m with Yorick. We might as well try,” Julian says.
I glance at the door where I see someone grab the handle, but the door won’t open no matter how hard the man yanks on it. “Wasn’t there a worker opening doors for people to leave?”
Atticus looks up but his eyes immediately return to Niles, who is staring at the man trying to leave.
“Why would you try to leave this splendid party?” Niles shouts.
Everyone around him watches him uncertainly.
“What is going on here?” Wick calmly asks.
Even though there are over a hundred people still inside the great room, almost everyone falls silent, realizing there’s an issue here.
“It’s such an easy question, really,” Niles says. “Who the fuck killed my wife?”
“Lou is dead?” Wick asks.
Niles grabs a chair and throws it at Wick. “Don’t fucking act like you don’t know shit! I know you’re all scheming against me. I know you’re trying to encroach on my territory. If you’re going to attempt that, then fucking face me, don’t kill my fucking wife!”
“I had absolutely no idea that Lou was dead, Niles. I’m so sorry,” Wick says.
Niles seems irrational and doesn’t look like he’s planning on listening to anyone. “Don’t fucking act like you care! Someone here killed her and until I find out who, no one is leaving.”
“You can’t keep us here,” the man who’s been trying to leave shouts. “I don’t even know who you are! I’m leaving—”
Niles is so fast that the man can’t even react before he drops the man’s head to the ground, leaving his body to sink to the floor.
Everyone is staring at the display in shock. While there’ve been plenty of fights and wars in the past, things like this are not taken lightly, especially now while we are at a time of peace. Something of this magnitude will have grave consequences.
“You do not come into my home and harm these people,” Wick yells as he rushes toward Niles, but from my understanding, Wick is significantly younger than him. Honestly, I don’t know anyone besides Morpheus who is that old.
Niles turns to face him, arm up in the air, a cruel smile on his face.
“Take a step closer and fifteen others will die, possibly more. I have a hundred of my children surrounding this place with bombs. I will blow every single one of you up if I do not get an answer. So someone had better start talking.”
Wick slows to a stop, looking uncertain while everyone watches him like he might be their only hope. “Why do you think the person who killed her is even here? Was she killed here? If so, why didn’t I hear about it?”
“You can’t do this. You know us, you know we wouldn’t have done anything to Lou,” a woman says, but when Niles turns his cold eyes on her, she promptly shuts up.
“This is very much not good,” Julian whispers.
“It definitely could be better,” Ezio agrees. “Hon, was this on your bingo card?”
“Being held hostage by an irrational two-thousand-year-old vampire? No… no, it wasn’t,” Cyrus says before looking at Atticus and Casimir like they might have an answer about what to do.
“He’s not as strong as his brother, but if he truly has his own people out there… I don’t know how we could overpower them and him. I bet Morpheus is having the time of his life,” Atticus growls.
“What if we just tell him the truth, that Morpheus did it?” I suggest.
“You think that man would even believe that his brother, who he’s obsessed with, killed his wife?” Atticus asks.
“I can be very persuasive.”
He shakes his head. “He already hates you. Something tipped him off to come here. It was likely all set up by Morpheus. We need to focus on leaving.”
“What about all of the people here, though?” I ask, looking at the anxious people desperate to leave.
Based on his cold expression, Atticus evidently doesn’t share my same concerns. “I care about keeping my group safe.”
“I concur,” Casimir says.
I open my mouth to remind them that I really am the guilty party and everyone else here is innocent, but Atticus’s sharp look tells me to keep quiet, so I do.
“I have all fucking night and day to play this game,” Niles announces.
“Let me help you find Lou’s killer. What makes you believe that they’re here?” Wick asks.
Niles shakes his head. “Are you just hoping to kill time? You can kill all the time you want! You think anyone is going to be able to help you? You’re all fucked until you tell me who killed my wife. I’ll spare you and let you and your family go if you tell me something of value.”
I can hear some people whispering about banding together to take him down, but others are uncertain. The man has already proven how quickly he can move, and that doesn’t account for the supposed hundred who are on his side.
“Do you think he’s lying? Do you think it’s just him?” I ask Atticus.
“I doubt it. I know he’s turned a significant number of people and has kept most of them close to him. There’s no way he came here alone. He probably has people in the crowd as well.”
“No? No one is interested in admitting it?” Niles asks, moving over to claim an area in the middle of the room. “That’s okay. We’ll just sit… and wait.”
“He’s killing time until the sun is out,” Julian says, worriedly watching his phone.
Wick tries to reason with him for a long while, but Niles refuses to listen to a single word that he says. Instead, he keeps taunting Wick as the minutes count down.
I murmur, “According to the records I saw, the garage is one floor under the main part of the house. This part was built later as an addition. I don’t know whether our cars are under there or they parked them elsewhere, but if we could obtain a car, we could get out of here even if the sun comes up. ”
“Is there a way down from somewhere in this room?” Casimir asks.
“No, it’s in the main part of the house, which is through that door there,” I say as I nod toward it.
“I don’t know where the fuck Johnny is,” Atticus growls. “I would like to know what it looks like from the outside before we decide what we’re doing.”
“He’s not answering?” I ask, concerned about that.
“No.”
“The sun is rising; you can’t keep us here all day,” someone shouts.
“I really think I can,” Niles says. “And every time someone bitches about it…” He lunges forward and grabs a wolf who hadn’t even spoken to him, killing her instantly.
Her mate screams and runs at Niles. In an attempt to save the werewolf, Wick jumps in front of Niles just as he goes in for the killing blow.
Wick manages to push Niles back a little, but it’s obvious Niles is older and faster than him.
He throws Wick back, who’s now spraying blood from a large gash on his chest, all while Niles stands there without a single scratch.
Wick’s wife grabs him and yanks him back as Niles kills the dead wolf’s mate.
I step forward but Atticus tugs me back.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he hisses.
“I can’t let him kill all these people.”
Atticus’s grip on my arm tightens, like he’s going to hold on so tightly that I can’t ever get free. “So you’re just going to let him kill you?”
“I can’t let him kill innocent people,” I insist.
“Just… give me a minute to think up something,” Atticus says while his eyes search our surroundings.
“I’m confident I can fight our way out while Niles is preoccupied,” Casimir says. “There’s a weak point over by the southeast door. There’s one man over there who is clearly one of Niles’s men. Ezio can sneak behind him and assassinate him while we get the rest of us out of here.”
“But he’ll just keep killing innocent people,” I protest.
Atticus looks at me, his dark eyes intense. “I’m not letting you die over this. I don’t know if this is Morpheus’s plan or what, but you’re not going to die.”
“If we’re doing something, we need to act quickly. The sun will begin to rise in fifteen minutes at this point,” Julian says. “If we get into a car, we’ll be fine, but we can’t stay here.”
Ezio looks away from the door toward us. “I’ll go for the guard near the door, so be prepared to flee the moment he’s down. We have no idea what we’ll face outside, but they also have to know that the sun will be coming up.”
“Which leads me to believe that there’s no longer anyone outside,” Casimir says.
I anxiously look back to where Niles is standing in the middle of the room while the vampires and weres press against the walls.
“He’s forcing them back against the walls,” I realize.
“What?”
“He said there were bombs… he wouldn’t need anyone outside if he had them place bombs along the outside of the building. He’s using fear to drive them against the walls and plans to wait for the sun to come up to set them off,” I say. “Ezio, wait. Don’t get close to the wall!”
Cyrus grabs him and jerks him back.
“What should we do if we can’t get close to the wall?” Julian asks.
“Niles seems to believe he’s safest in the middle, so head to the middle with him,” Atticus says. “Come on, Johnny, where the fuck are you?”
We push through the crowd while his phone rings and rings without any answer from Johnny, even after all this time. I can tell that even though Atticus pretends he doesn’t care for the man, he’s concerned about him.
Knowing we have very little time to lose, I rush over to Wick, which makes Atticus growl, displeased I stepped out of his reach. “Wick, he’s pushing people against the walls… I could be wrong, but I believe he has the outer walls rigged to blow, and with the sun coming up, the vampires would die.”
Wick immediately notices the same thing I’m seeing. “Get away from the walls!”
The smile on Niles’s face falls and his head snaps around to face Wick. He rushes the man, but I’m between them.
Atticus shoves me back, but instead of fighting Atticus, Niles draws back with a twisted smile on his face.
“You’re all fucked. Now,” Niles yells before the world explodes around me.
I feel something slam into me and I’m driven to the ground, which shudders as the walls and roof collapse around me.
And for the first time in so many years, I see a glimpse of the sun with absolutely nothing between us.
I feel pain erupt across my legs, and the only thing I can think about when I realize I’m about to die is that I never got to tell Atticus how much I’ve loved him for nearly five hundred years.