15. Talon
CHAPTER 15
Talon
I 'd made sure I kept the check-in call with Zachariah as quick as possible, guilt still clinging to my insides at the memory of what happened yesterday when I left her to do the same thing. I had to call him quicker than usual, to let him know at the elevation of violence her mother was exhibiting.
The visual image of finding Cassandra in that fucking closet, iron digging into her flesh so much she was drenched in blood, will never leave me.
I wanted to kill every single living creature in the estate, but she’d grounded me. Reminded me of the mission we both agreed to. The fact that she put that above her own need for vengeance made something crack open inside of me. Something intense and world-shattering.
Something I knew we needed to talk about, but I couldn't find the words or the courage to do so.
I hurried back in my panther form, pushing my body to the limit to get back faster. Even though I knew from this evening's repast that Cassandra’s mother considered the debt to the Wrights paid, and had the audacity to laugh about the situation, it didn't make being separated from her any easier. And my hackles rose the second I stepped back into the estate, smelling a new scent that I hadn't smelled before.
I prowled the estate, realizing the new smell was dangerously close to Cassandra’s, and I upped my pace to get to her. The idea of another pompous aristocratic male heir trying to claim her as his had my vision flickering from thermal even though I was in shifted form.
“I told you, I don't know,” Cassandra said, just the hint of tension in her voice.
“You know more than you're letting on, little sister,” I heard a male voice, and knew in my bones it was Edward.
The vampire we'd been waiting for.
This was our moment. As much as I wanted to shift and slice his throat, I knew I couldn't. We'd been waiting months for this chance at information and I wouldn’t blow our cover.
I did my best to lock down each of my instincts, and slowed my pace.
“Our brother is missing,” Edward snapped. “There’s been no sign of Warrick in months , and the last bit of information I received was that he was heading to the king's residence. To you. And I don't know if that was on his own accord or if he was being summoned, but I find it very convenient that you left the minute he was spotted heading that way.”
“What the hell are you accusing me of?” she fired back. “I haven't seen Warrick or you or any sign of our family since all of you abandoned me at that court to take the full punishment for what Father was caught doing.”
I edged around the corner, doing my best to not bare my teeth at the sight of him gripping her arm so dangerously tight I could see the fear in her eyes.
“You are hiding something from me, sister, and I am damn well sure going to figure it—” Edward's eyes fell to me as I made myself fully visible, padding up to Cassandra’s side.
He dropped his grip on her arm, turning to face me, curiosity in his eyes.
He moved faster and quicker than I expected, a flash of iron chain snapping out and wrapping around my neck in an instant.
A half-growl, half-whimper ripped from my lips as I did my best to hold my shift even though the iron was draining the magic in me.
“This cat has never once walked into a room without hissing at me,” Edward growled, yanking on the chain even harder.
“Stop!” Cassandra cried.
I lost hold on the shift, my panther skin shedding and my vampiric body thrashing against the chain that burned my fingers as I tried to get it off.
Edward yanked me to the floor, throwing another chain and another, pulling them from a supply that had been set on a table, no doubt about to have been put on Cassandra if she’d kept denying his questions.
Every muscle in my body weakened under the iron, the pain like a thousand hot knives stabbing into my skin. My eyes met Cassandra’s, imploring and apologetic.
She flew backward against the wall, as if some invisible force had shoved her there, drawing Edward’s attention. She blinked a few times, her eyes shifting from that beautiful vulnerable gaze to an icy-cold, unforgiving mask that matched that of her mother's normal features.
“Thank the gods,” she said in a saccharine-sweet voice as she looked down at me in disgust. “He was the link to Alek’s compulsion,” she said to Edward. “You have to get Mom off the island.”
“What?” Edward snapped. “The king used his powers to compel you?”
“Yes,” she said rolling her shoulders as if she was still shaking off the power. “That was my punishment,” she said. “To sneak this hunter trash onto the island without the wards detecting him.”
“That coward,” Edward said.
She was lying. Right? My king would never compel her, would he?
Fuck, I didn't know.
I hadn't been in this century long enough to have formed the bond of trust with my king, instead relying on my honor and duty of my position. Alek could’ve compelled her while me and my brothers were catching up on everything in the modern world. He could’ve compelled her while I was out on any one of my many missions. I’d never paid attention enough to her. I’d hated her on principle, hated her for her name and her status.
But I knew her. I knew her better than this. Right?
But if my king had used me as the blood link for compulsion, he could have easily done so when I had made the pledge to him, slicing my hand open in the official custom ceremony of committing myself to his reign.
Fuck. I couldn't tell.
I couldn't trust my own heart.
I’d been betrayed before, by somebody I thought I loved. Who was to say I wouldn't have made the same mistake again?
“If you were truly compelled by the king,” Edward said, not even paying me any attention as I sat there and writhed on the floor, the pain of the iron draining the life right out of me. “Tell me something. Give me a piece of information that I can use. Something no one else would know. Something someone loyal to the king would never share.”
This was it. She’d never give up anything that would hurt the king. She'd make up some lie, and I’d know. I’d know she didn't betray me.
“You have to get Mom off the island,” she said again. “They've already taken Warrick.”
“Not until you assure me without a doubt where your allegiance lies.”
“I told you I was compelled,” she said, but her brother wasn't having any of it. She rolled her eyes, looking completely annoyed and irritated. “Fine,” she said. “You know the king's little human recently turned vampire mate?”
No. No she wouldn't?—
“Her blood is rare,” she continued, and I swear my heart broke into a million painful shards. “One so rare it's invaluable. It offers a weapon against what you and your new allies have been working on. She can heal almost anything. Including Night Thistle poisoning and more.”
“She's a remedial?” he asked, shock rippling down his body.
“Yes,” she confirmed.
I felt like I was dying. Not because of the iron, but because of how easily I’d been fooled by her. How much it hurt for my heart to break.
A heart that I had entrusted to her without even me realizing I’d done it.
She may as well have driven a dagger straight through my heart.
I was such a fucking idiot.
“We'll have to eradicate her,” Edward said, looking like he was talking more to himself than anyone else.
“If you're not going to leave, you should at least get Mom somewhere safe. I told you I was sent here as a distraction?—”
Edward backhanded her so hard her head snapped to the left, and even though my heart was broken, I hissed and growled like the animal I was. Even though she'd betrayed me and hurt me, some ridiculous primal instinct inside me couldn't stand seeing her hurt.
“That's for being weak enough to allow yourself to be compelled by the king.” He grabbed her shoulders and forced her into the nearest chair. “You sit the fuck there and don't move until I come back. I'll deal with you once I secure this piece of hunter trash.”
He stomped over to me, gripping the iron chains with his leather gloves, dragging me down the hallway like I really was nothing but a piece of garbage.
I couldn't even fight.
There was so much iron covering my body.
“Don't look so sad, hunter,” he snapped at me. “I'm keeping you alive, for now. Just in case I need to use you as leverage.”
He dragged me down a set of stairs, my head hitting against the hard wooden steps with each descent. The concrete was cold and damp on my back, and the creak of iron bars groaned open before he shoved me into a cell and locked the bars behind me.
There were no less than six of his vampire guards down here, all armed to the teeth, but with the force in which he had thrown me into the cell, at least some of the iron had fallen off. I quickly moved as far away from it as possible, only to run into another set of iron bars.
I hissed, but tried to hold on to my bearings.
“If he so much as tries to escape,” Edward commanded his guards. “Put a Night Thistle bullet through his heart. He’s important, but not enough that I want him kept alive if he gets out of that cage.”
The guard's nodded, and Edward disappeared up the stairs again.
My entire body shook, and I heaved up what little blood I'd been able to eat earlier. My magic felt like it'd been locked away in an iron box that I couldn’t access, but I tried anyway. Tried hard as hell to shift into something small that could slip through these bars and get back to where I was needed.
But I couldn’t reach it. The connection was dead.
And I felt like I wasn’t far behind.